Lucky 13
by YiffyOne
Summary: Warning, A self indulgent self insertion. I decide to spite the prospect of luck, but it comes back to bite me, and I become the very symbol of bad luck itself. My world collides with hers...
1. Prologue

YiffyOne presents…

"Lucky 13" Prologue: "Curiosity Killed the Cat" 

Amazing, how you can make a person hate you with a single word.

What little self-esteem I had evaporated, and I hated myself for what I did. I'd never been so depressed in my life.

I… I always said I'd lynch anyone who made her cry. Being a man of my word, I guess this meant I'd have to noose myself.

I shuddered at the very thought of doing it… I'd never considered it before… It was just so scary to me… death, I mean. I was the biggest coward I knew, so I figured no matter how much I wanted to die, or how everyone would be better off without me, I'd never be able to do it.

So there I was, sitting on that bench…

That hard, cold, still… just thoroughly unpleasant bench. I remembered how the couch in her house was so soft, and warm… I remembered how _she _was even warmer, so lovely and supple. I adored her, so I _claimed_. As far as I could see, that was bullshit. If I loved her, I wouldn't have broken my promise. I wouldn't have laid such a heavy burden on her.

…I couldn't offer to help her with it, for fear I'd screw it up even worse. I was almost positive that her step-dad would pulverize me when he found out. I didn't know if she would tell him or not, but it didn't matter. She couldn't hide it forever.

I got scared again. He had some serious connections, I doubt I could get away from him even if I moved to Antarctica. Call it a hunch, but something inside told me he'd wring my neck in due time.

…For my sake, I hoped I was wrong.

So here I was, nobody but myself to console me. Heck, even _I _was too smart for that… I knew I didn't deserve any such comfort, so I didn't offer myself any.

I had nothing to do but wallow in my own self-inferiority issue. No, scratch that, this was _guilt_. Pain, sorrow, any way you look at it, I was miserable. At the end of my rope, I had nothing to do but look back into the past… before I gave her that unwanted gift…

Oh? Curious, are you? You know, they say 'curiosity killed the cat'…

…Brr! It gives me the shivers, I tell you!

I _hate_ that saying, but it's true. Maybe that's _why _I hate it… after all, it's something I can relate to, in a very, very ironic sense. So ironic, it goes beyond being funny, and teeters on the brink of scary.

Hmm? Ramble? Me?

…Really?

Ah, forgive my rudeness… My name is… Hmm.

Actually, I have two.

I'll start by giving you my birth name. I'm Joshua Alan Duncan… Josh for short.

Heh, I know, it's a tad generic, but that's what I was given. I don't go by that name anymore, though… Sometimes it's a wonder I don't forget it. It… It represents everything I used to be, before lady luck changed everything I knew, including myself.

Now, don't take that statement lightly. Lady luck, she's a fickle mistress. She can never decide if she wants to kick me or kiss me, it seems. Sometimes she's got me so dizzy and bleary-eyed, I can't tell if the luck she sends my way is good or bad.

At one point, I was convinced my luck was SO rotten, that the old lady was using reverse psychology on me. So, being the 'clever' chap I was, I decided to change it around on her, and I started surrounding myself with bad luck signs. My lucky number shifted from 7 to 13, I broke mirrors on a daily basis, and I decorated my room with open umbrellas.

…Now, one who knows the meaning of the word superstition might think I had a death wish, but I'll tell you one thing, around the time I started spilling salt on purpose, and tossing it over my _right_ shoulder, life started getting exceedingly better. Coincidence? Maybe. The old lady has her ways of making it look so, even if it's not true. Even at this point, I'm not sure if the prospect of luck even exists.

Well, even though I had my doubts, I always thought that, if things can't hurt you, they can only help, right? Ok, so maybe it's not the best motto ever, but it was something I went by. I continued to spice my life up with 'bad' luck, and I'd say it was working, or at least seemed to be. I was too indecisive to really decide on whether I was a 'believer' or not, but I had my fun with it.

… Then it came back to bite me. No one likes to be fooled, right? Miss luck's plan to keep the little black rain clouds above my head backfired, and she wasn't too pleased. It might sound like a folly, but, judging from what happened next, I'd say I pissed her off, BAD.

Long story short, that's when my life as Josh D. was over. She did it, she killed me.

What? No, no! Not in a literal sense, you don't understand…

Hoo boy. Guess there's no such thing as a short version to _my_ story. Not one that anybody'd bother to listen to, anyway… Alright then, I'll tell you the whole thing… I need to get it off my chest, anyway.

Hmm… Where to start? Ok…

I don't wanna confuse you (or myself) anymore, so I'll start from the very beginning, and work my way up to my present dilemma. Oh, and I'll forewarn you, I'm not going to spare any details… And this story does involve love, relationships, and, you guessed it, sex.

Well, you're not stupid, are you? You'd probably figured that initially, when I went on monologuing like an overly dramatic dork…

Ok, so we've made all the mental preparations… You sure you're ready to hear about this? It's kind of unbelievable… And I don't mean that word in the context of 'amazing'. No, I mean you're NOT going to believe some of the stuff I'm going to tell you. Seriously, I sparsely believe some of it myself. You still want to know? Man, you _are_ curious…

Just to let you know, you'll be sitting here for a while. You sure you don't have something better to do?

Hmm?

Erh, yes, I'm sorry… I _do_ have a tendency to drag things out. An old habit of mine…

Alright, then. Ahem.

It all started about a year ago…

**End Prologue**


	2. Chapter 1

Attention: AI- (this signifies an 'author intrusion'. If you see it, it means I'm putting a hold on the story for a moment to talk to you directly, possibly to explain something. When it's over, and the story resumes, I'll simply type 'EI' for "end intrusion'. Take heed that this is NOT an Author's NOTE, but a part of the story, where I, the narrator, bring you back to the present, most likely to ramble.) "Lucky 13" Chapter 1: "Love Before Sight" 

"Ahhh!" I moaned, as wave after wave of delight washed over my body, attacking me relentlessly, subduing me with the unfathomable pleasures of sin.

Her thighs bucked against my groin wildly, and each impact our bodies shared made her ears flail and her supple body tremulate. I felt at _one _with her…

"Oh…!" She cooed, softly, and her voice, it was like sweet serenity. It calmed the storm within my heart, and yet, at the same time, drove my instincts wild; made me want her all the more.

…How did I get here? Who was it that was bringing me such joy, such content, such _bliss_?

I didn't give it another thought, as I lost control, and my other head took over completely. I gripped her petite frame firmly, but gently, and applied all the strength my arms would lend me to pulling her down upon myself, harder, faster than before.

"Ah, ah, ah, ah!" Was all that escaped her tiny muzzle, as she, too, was corroded over by the mind numbing feeling.

The air of the room grew musty and thick with the smell of our activity, and, if anything, it only furthered the appeal of the act. I got faster, and I pounded against her with all my might, and her wonderful little body jostled with each contact, sweat and other fluids matting her fur, and mine. I felt my temperature, and libido reach their peak, and my tongue dangled freely, and numbly from my muzzle… I was past the point-of-no-return now…

_BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!_

"Agh!" I yelped in surprise, as the pleasure was wisp'd away, replaced by the pain that thudding against the hard wood floor brought me.

I just lay there for a moment, in the same position I fell (face first), half asleep, cursing brainlessly until I realized I was on the ground. Grumbling irritably, I rolled about a minute, then managed to sit, and finally stand, all over the coarse of about 20 minutes. I scratched my head, and looked up at the ceiling.

Then it came back to me… the dream I just had. I made an angry face, which only looks funny and uncharacteristic when _I_ do it.

"…Bah, stupid alarm clock…" I uttered, upset that it had gone off at that EXACT moment.

I pushed myself up, and flopped back onto the bed, hands behind my head, staring mindlessly across the room. My look was pensive.

I tried to remember… to remember each and every detail, but for some reason it was all so hazy, and I didn't know why… it had seemed so vivid and realistic when I'd dreamt it.

All I remembered at this point was the sex, and the girl…

That girl…

My heart twirled like a giddy fairy, dancing on the petals of a buttercup, just at the mere thought of her. I felt a sudden happiness, a sudden longing. Sadly though, I couldn't seem to remember much about her… bar how amazing she was.

…But I _knew_ she wasn't human.

I felt my cheeks get hot, and I covered up with the blanket, just in case anyone came in, and noticed that my face wasn't the _only_ place my blood was rushing. It was almost embarrassing, and yet, at the same time, so very interesting. I found myself curious.

If she wasn't human, what _was_ she?

However, the thought was cut off, and replaced with the frantic worry that every teenager experiences when they glance over at their alarm clock, and realize that they SHOULD'VE woken up 20 minutes ago.

"Wha-? 8:30? Christ!" I shouted, as I leapt from my bed, grabbed a handful of random clothes, and ran to the bathroom. I ran by my dad, a short, black-haired man with a goatee. I was about the same height as he was, maybe a tad taller. I jogged in place as I opened the closet door, looking feverishly for a towel. There were none.

" 'Ere." Came my father's voice. He handed me a small head-towel, gaudy and pink, but I liked the way it felt on my skin, so I didn't care the color. I took it from him.

"Thanks. Hey, why the heck didn't you wake me up?" I asked him, not mad, but not really happy, either. He shook his head in that fatherly way he did.

"You wouldn't budge!" He claimed. I made a suspicious, slightly disrespectful face at him. I silently wondered if he really even tried.

"Am I _really_ that hard to wake up in the morning, dad?"

He didn't say anything, but just gave me a reproachful glare that made me know my place. I backed off, not about to argue with him, especially in the morning. If I got into a scuffle with him, it would just ruin my whole day. Usually _I_ was right-- I got it from my mom, and he KNEW it. But, nevertheless, he was the authority in the house, and, whether he was right or not, I, as his son, had no choice but to go along with what he told me. I walked into the bathroom and turned the knob, making water jet out from the spigot. Seeing as I was already considerably tardy, I figured I'd take my time.

Dad just stared at me as I meticulously adjusted the water to a satisfactory warmth.

"Y' know, you can still catch the career bus if you skip the shower…" He suggested. I shook my head.

"Outta the question. I'm already late, anyways." I explained, removing my shirt.

"I don't feel like drivin' you to that vocational school." He told me. I removed my jeans, leaving my boxers as the only thing separating me from total nudity. I scratched my head.

"Well, It's not like I'm _ecstatic _to go to drafting class in the first place. I'd rather sit through study hall than hear Mr. Stewart lecture me on how imperfect my skills with a scale are." I said, bitterly sarcastic. It was obvious that I enjoyed mocking the tubby engineer that I was forced to learn under, but nobody really cared outside of class. Dad tilted his head.

"…Scale?" He asked. I folded my palish, exposed arms.

"…It's his weirdo way of saying 'ruler'. We have _all_ these funky, unnecessary terms that we're supposed to use to refer to common, everyday tools. A ruler's a scale, a pencil's a drawing utensil, the thing we use to make ovals is an 'elliptical guideline', or something… The guy's friggin' OCD." I finished, flicking a long strand of my coppery hair out of my face. I had my mom's hair… long, shiny, and thick. One look at me, and that's the first thing you'd notice. It was by far my most distinguishing feature.

"…That's fine, but yer momma'll be pissed." He told me, looking frank. His southern accent was a lot thicker than my own, but then again, you'd have to pay close attention to notice mine. I shrugged.

"I'll take the heat, don't worry about it. If there's anyone who can talk their way around mom, it's me." I told him, and, knowing it was true, he nodded.

"So you gonna get in there, or what?" He asked me, staring. I chuckled at his perverse sense of humor, whereas most people'd probably just be creeped out. I was used to him being that way, though.

I _was_ waiting for him to leave before I undressed fully, but only to show common courtesy. I see he was testing me to see how bold I was, since I used to really freak out when people barged in on me while I was nude. I grabbed the bands of my shorts.

"You think I'm still embarrassed to get naked in front of my own family? I've got nothin' to be ashamed of… I just didn't wanna make you jealous." I said, through a wry grin. He shook his head, and laughed.

"Heh. You get that from me, y'know." He explained, as he shut the bathroom door.

"Hahaha, I HOPE so. You're the DAD." I called out through it. I wasn't sure if he heard me or not, but I didn't really care.

I took one of my extra long, Saturday showers, rather than one of the super-speedy Monday ones. I always considered bathing a luxury, as long as the water was nice and hot.

Well, really not much to tell there, unless you want to hear the specifics about how I bathe myself. I could just as easily tell you about it, but, something deep inside tells me that the majority of you aren't interested.

About 30 to 40 minutes pass, and I was fully dressed, and examining myself in the mirror, brushing my hair to work out any stray tangles.

My hair grew freely in all directions, was quite straight, and I pampered it till there wasn't a hair out of place. My build wasn't muscular, nor was it obese, but what one would call the epitome of average. I had blue-green eyes, for the most part. If you were to look at them up close, their hue was far more complicated and intricate than just that, in a way I couldn't really specify.

I wasn't Mr. Hotty, but I suppose I was regarded to be rather handsome…

And, as you'll probably find out, I was quite the Casanova.

Dad drove me to my_ favorite_ place in the world; Station Square High School, good old SSHS. Huh? Sarcastic? Me? _No_, I wasn't being sarcastic at _all_, really, I _adored _school.

I chuckled to myself as I entered my study hall, receiving glares left and right at how ridiculously late I was… I'd managed to kill off more than two thirds of the pointless class. I explained my situation (untruthfully, of course) to the teacher supervising us, and took my seat afterward, looking rotten glad of my own 'misfortune' in missing the career bus. You could tell I really abhorred my drafting class.

I pulled out a small, film-like paper with an odd pattern on it. This was my 'lucky' snake-skin, which I carried everywhere. I didn't really want to kiss it, so I just smiled at it, and put it back in my pocket.

Now, some might find this a bit odd… ok, so you ALL do…

Ok, maybe I do to, but seriously, I honestly believed that this little 'bad' luck charm brought me good fortune…

…And it DID.

I'm not sure if you remember this or not, but I said before that I had some pretty rotten luck when I was growing up. When I was about 13, I became superstitious, and started carrying lucky rabbit's feet, and four leaf clovers… Heck, if I drove at the time, I'd have run off the road into a tree before I'd cross paths with a black cat.

But, as you may or may not know, I was pretty level-headed for a teenager. Eventually, I figured out that the good luck charms only made things WORSE. So, naturally, I figured if good meant bad, then bad must mean good.

I was skeptical at first, but I stopped carrying anything that was supposed to signify good luck with me. I was 16 when I officially changed my lucky number to 13.

Now this is where it gets weird.

On that VERY same day, I had sex for the first time. It blew my mind, I'd never experienced such a thing… I'd always thought it was overrated, but, I found, if anything, it was UNDERrated.

Hmm…? What's _that_ look for? Hehe, you didn't _honestly_ think I was a virgin, did you? I'm a 17 year-old guy, c'mon…

Well, anyway, one would say I sort of changed. If anything, I'd say my confidence increased, which I guess is the common occurrence when it involves guys my age having sex. And, needless to say, this is when I became a fervent believer in the beauty of my discovery: That bad luck was GOOD.

I was, without a doubt, a huge flirt after that. I was an Epicurean, and lived my life in pursuit of pleasure, pleasure meaning good sex. But don't take that the wrong way… I _did_ have my morals. I wasn't just running around, laying with whomever I knew I could coax into bed… I had feelings, after all.

Despite that, I never really had a steady girlfriend. I was a hopeless romantic, a feminist, and had a very sensitive heart, but I could never keep the spark of a relationship kindled. Here I thought I was in it just for the sex, but, as time passed, and I turned 17, I found that the intercourse just wasn't as meaningful and passionate without…

… well, passion.

You know, everyone thought I was a free-spirited womanizer who didn't like to be tied down, but, as far as I was concerned, those people didn't know a _thing_ about me. I was totally the contrary: I was looking for something to hold onto, that one little thing in life that I could pamper and adore, and cherish for the rest of my life. I wanted somebody to fall in love with.

Anyway, back to the story at hand. Study hall went by as it usually did, with absolutely nothing happening, just quiet. Some might call it unsettling, but I found it peaceful. It really gave me some time to think.

Of course, it wasn't long before the dream-girl came fluttering back to my mind, like a graceful little seraph.

It was so strange, how something I _knew_ existed only in a fantasy world could make me feel so light, so warm. It was like I was sitting on a cloud, sun-bathing every time I thought about the way she made me feel. I could only recall her general shape, her voice, and her color. She was small, a tad smaller than me, and much thinner… her voice was what one would call ridiculously high, but in a sweet, cute way… And her color was like… I couldn't really describe it. Or, I could, but I couldn't think of the words… they just wouldn't come. Anyway, the very inhuman creature I had intercourse with… everything about her appealed to me, it seemed… well, all but the fact that she wasn't real.

I felt a shiver go up my spine at the thought that entered my head after that. In that dream… _I_ wasn't human, either. I hadn't given it any consideration, but I distinctly recalled having a sooty black fur enveloping my whole body.

…I couldn't remember anything else about what the dream had transformed me into, but it, for some reason or another, made cold chills coarse throughout my veins.

_BRIIIIIING…._

I quite nearly jumped out of my seat, as my train of thought was shattered like so many mirrors. I'd quite nearly forgotten where I was. The girl next to me, whom I didn't know, but had always considered cute, giggled at me. I scratched my head, and winked at her, which was my reflex in an awkward situation involving a pretty lady. She hid her face, sweetly, like all girls do when they don't want you to know they're blushing… but I knew. Heh, I _always _knew.

It was sort of… a hobby of mine to know how a female's mind worked.

Nevertheless, the bell had rung, and that was my cue to split study hall and head to the cafeteria. I took my time, packing my stuff, sifting my way through the crowd until I was in the clear, and could walk to lunch at my own pace. I wasn't a slow person, but chose to go through life slowly, and pay attention to detail, so I had a steady stride.

As soon as I exited the building, I saw the two pretty faces I admired the most, my best friends, Star, and Amy. They waved me over, seeming frantic and panicked, eager to get to the lunchroom before the lines filled up and all the good seats were taken.

I took my time, though, and walked over in the same way I always did. Coolly. Heh.

"Josh! Hurry up!" Star squeaked, grabbing my hand, and pulling me along with her. I chuckled a little, and let her lead me around with her dainty hand, as Amy grabbed the other, and did the same. I really didn't weigh that much to begin with, so with their combined strengths, we moved along at a happy little pace, people looking at us, some with smiles, some with jealousy.

Star and Amy were both about… mmm, 2 years younger than me. We didn't have any classes together, bar a few extracurricular, but nonetheless, we were inseparable.

Star was a blonde-headed girl, with hair about the same length as my own, meaning significantly long. She was also short, though she hated to be teased about it… I really couldn't talk, though, as, for a 17 year old boy, nearly an adult, I was only 2 to 4 inches taller. Amy close to matched my height, and she had brunette hair, which she kept cut fairly short, in what one might call a bobcut, which suited her, seeing as she was a total tomboy. Despite that, I always thought Amy had very fetching brown-green eyes, and was ever-so sweet if the mood caught her.

Hehe, I say those things lightly, but I wouldn't change either girl for the world, and they thought the same way about me. They really were two of a kind, and I was the wild card. Some people referred to us as the 'troublesome trio', which was a title we were proud of.

I let the girls drag me along until I found myself sitting at a table, a plate of food, or what the cafeteria _claimed_ was food, sitting before me.

"Congratulations, Josh, you've once again dragged your ass and made us have to wait in line." Star said, making Amy snicker. I cocked my head at the blonde.

"Line? What are you talking about, you guys snuck into the senior line with me!" I told them. Star drooped her head down hopelessly.

"Josh, your ability to focus is getting increasingly dull." She said. Amy nodded.

"Yeah, Mr. O grabbed us and looked at our ID tags… We didn't make it through." She explained.

"Mr. O? You mean the old mexican that vaguely resembles Santa Claus?" I asked. Amy and Star both nodded wildly, and pointed to him. He was yelling at somebody about something. He was a new teacher, but none of us knew what he taught, since he only came to SSHS about a week earlier.

"Yeah! He's really crackin' down on who they let through the senior line, too! I swear, the dress code, the ID tags, EVERYTHING has to be in order when THAT guy's around." Star said, seeming worried for the future. I shook my head apologetically.

"Man, I'm sorry, you two. I erh, I've just had some things on my mind."

Star and Amy looked at each other, then at me, amused.

"Oh? Last time you said that, Shannon started running around, telling everyone that you got her pregnant!" Amy said, laughingly. Star almost shot milk out of her nose, and I just blushed at the mention of the HORRIBLE memory.

"Geez, that girl was a MANIAC! The one time we DID do it, I used PROTECTION! Then she started spreading all those rumors, I swear, I like to never got back in good social standing." I said, sipping my milk. These two girls always took account of my relationships, and thought of themselves as matchmakers. They knew I was looking for the right one, and they did their best to help me, but I swear, sometimes it ended up as a DISASTER.

"Hahahaha! Well, at least she dropped out." Star said, biting into a hunk of cornbread.

"Heh, yeah. You know I heard she had that baby." I told them. Star's eyes almost bugged out, and Amy looked attentive, too.

"Huh! She was really pregnant?" Star shouted, loud enough to wake the dead. I put on a very surprised face, though inside I was smiling.

"Yeah… Wait, you didn't know that?" I asked. Star and Amy both shook their heads.

"It wasn't yours, was it?" Amy asked. I laughed, slapping my knee for added effect.

"Pffft! No… But she thought it was, since that was around the time me and her did… that. But anyway, no, it's not mine. I mean, I HOPE not, it was black." I said. Star and Amy both stared at me for a minute, and then bust out laughing.

"Hahaha! It was BLACK?" Amy shouted, trying not to shoot food across the cafeteria.

"Hehehehe! Shannon had a black man's baby!" Star chortled, pounding the table with her fist.

They had their hardyhars, and I did too, seeing as I'd just gotten them to believe something ridiculous. I looked them right in the eye and said:

"I first learned about it when I was looking at her myspace. You can find a picture of her black baby at I explained.

At the sound of the word 'bullshit', Amy and Star slapped their foreheads and started laughing in spite of themselves. They knew I'd gotten them good this time.

Oh? Don't know what we're on about, do you… Well, it's not that hard to get. Me, Star, and Amy, we did this thing called 'bullshit'. It was basically when one of us told the other ones a lie, and worked an intricate plan into it, and it usually ended up a ridiculous, unbelievable story. The object of bullshitting was basically getting somebody to believe something preposterous, and then, when you've finally got them believing it, you tell them it was a bullshit, and they feel dumb. We did it all the time, and you wouldn't _believe_ some of the stuff we'd get one another to think was true.

Heh, for instance, one time Star had convinced me that people over in Taiwan, after the nuclear war, had mutated, and had tentacles hanging from their faces. One time I had Amy thinking I was born in Mexico. And, who could forget the king of all bullshits? When me and Amy teamed up and had Star convinced that a lobotomy was a required procedure for football athletes in Norway…

The only way to get around a bullshit is to say 'Is this a bullshit?'. If they say that, and it is, then you have no choice but to admit that it was, otherwise it's against the rules. Star was a very clever girl, so she actually caught most of them. Amy caught on a lot, too. I was just as bright as they were, but I suppose I was a tad more trusting than I needed to be, because I was more often than not duped. However, even though I was bullshitted more than either of the girls, I also did the most bullshitting… And I was a keen actor, so few of my bullshits went unbelieved. Sometimes I'd get them both at once, sometimes just one, sometimes I'd team up with one of them to bullshit the other… Sometimes I would turn traitor and tell the other girl about it, and we'd both end up getting my 'partner in crime' even worse. It was all fun and games, though.

It was also strange, because, even though I was so good at bullshitting, I remained a terrible liar. I suppose it was my conscience, I mean, bullshitting, it was different, because I knew, even though I was lying, I'd tell them that I was, eventually. With a real lie… well, it just didn't sit well with me, letting the truth remain unveiled.

But I'm rambling again.

"Man, you got us…" Amy said, scratching her head. Star was laughing still.

"Hehe, yeah, now that I think about it, Shannon never went anywhere _near_ another guy after you." She said, casting me a curious look. I smiled, and shrugged.

"Well, I was her first. And I TOLD her it would hurt, but she insisted, and when it DID hurt, she freaked out, and pretty much went nuts after that." I told them. Star sent a genuine wink my way.

"Well, sleeping with you would fracture ANY girl's sanity."

Amy let out an 'ohhhhhhh' and started laughing, but I just smiled and leaned toward the witty Star.

"Well, I won't deny that. Bet I could drive _you_ crazy…" I said, giving her a seductive look. Amy stopped laughing, and Star's face went beet-red. She probably would have laughed if I weren't looking at her like that, but her eyes told me that she couldn't tell if I was seriously coming onto her, or playing.

Of course, I was just playing. I had my fun seeing her flustered reaction to that, then drew my head back, chuckling. Amy started laughing with me, albeit strangely, but Star just seemed embarrassed.

"Haha, very funny." She said, looking at the ground. I grinned sheepishly at her.

"Oh, come on, Star, I was just funnin'. You don't have to get all bent outta shape." I told her. I looked at Amy, whom was looking at Star, narrowing her eyes just a little bit… All the while 'laughing'. It was kind of scary-looking, actually.

I didn't know what to make of that… well, actually I did, but I've my reasons not to mention it.

Even over the year we knew each other, whenever I made a flirty joke concerning the two, there was always a certain uneasiness between us. I always thought that was awfully cute, though, the way they reacted to my charms.

But I always told myself that the relationship I had with the girls, a true-blue friendship…. Well, it was fine the way it was. And though, I had to admit, I _was_ curious, I reminded myself that _they_ deserved full control over the situation… not me. And if they wanted to step that relationship up, I'd let _them _do it. It didn't seem fair for me to take advantage of their indecisiveness. Plus, both girls had a very fiery temper, and both were willing to fight for what they wanted. Heck, if my heart wasn't deceiving me, and it never was, the moment my relationship with either went beyond platonic, there'd be all-out war… And I wasn't about to get caught up in that.

"Star, you're not… _mad, _are you?" I asked, looking worried. She twiddled her thumbs, and hit me. Not hard, but harder than she normally did. (she hit everyone, but it was in an affectionate way, I thought)

"No, silly, why would I be mad?" She asked me, still not meeting my eyes entirely. I shrugged.

"I dunno, why would you?"

"…Cuz I don't want none o' your black babies." She said, jokingly, as she hit me again, this time a tad softer. I laughed, and she finally smiled. We all laughed. It was a genuine laugh, one you don't need a real reason for, one that only good friends could share. It was a natural expression of joy, and that was all there was to it. We didn't _need_ something as trivial as a reason.

_RIIIIING_…

"Meh. Is it just me, or is lunch getting shorter and shorter?" Star asked nobody in particular, as she picked her backpack up. I shrugged.

"Time flies when you're havin' fun." I said. Amy hung her head, looking miserable… haha, she sure did hate her biology class.

"Yeah, and time freezes when you're miserable…" She said.

"I think time hates us…" Added Star, with a comical expression. I chuckled at her.

"Well, if it were tangible I'm sure you and Amy could kick it's ass." I said. Star and Amy both struck a funny looking muscle-man pose, and I couldn't help but snicker at it.

"You bet we could!" They said in unison. I shook my head, all the while chuckling at them.

"Well, speaking of time, I gotta go, cuz mine's short. Even shorter than YOU, Star. Ciao!" I said, turning about and running to my class, grabbing my bookbag from the table as I went.

"Hey! Hit and run! I'll get you for that, you punk!" She shouted after me. I raised a hand to wave at them, not turning around or stopping.

"Love you, too! Later!" I shouted.

The next class I had was the last one of the day, but the longest. I rather enjoyed this class, though, seeing as it was English. I never really knew why, but I always enjoyed my English classes, and always excelled above everyone else in my class, concerning the literary arts. Maybe it was because I was a writer, (though I hadn't really written anything notable… not yet) maybe it was my fondness of vocabulary and grammar, heck, maybe it was just because I was good at it, I dunno.

Nevertheless, English went by slow. Everyone else in the class rejoiced at that fact that we didn't really have anything to do for the whole period (due to the sub's incompetence), but I was so horribly bored. I mean, I had friends in that class, and I _did_ chat with them a bit, but I had my hopes set on reading some of the novel we were reading (as a class), but, seeing as the sub told everyone that they didn't have to read if they'd already read it, everybody, regardless of whether they'd read a single word out of the book, dropped the thing and started talking.

Now I, for one, have a very, VERY fragile attention span, so, needless to say, I could not, under any circumstances, read with people chattering in the background. A single little noise just shattered my ability to focus into a million pieces. I eventually gave up, and put the book down. People talked to me left and right, but I really wasn't paying much attention to them. I mean, talking was fun, but not when the whole conversation centers around gossip and rumors.

I took my pen and started to mark on the blank sheet of paper before me, but the ink didn't come. I shook it, and still, nothing. I didn't particularly care, but I found it odd… externally, there was nothing wrong with the pen. I wrote on my hand with it, and the ink came out, easily. I tried it on the paper again… nothing.

Curious, I unscrewed the pen to examine the part that held the ink. Nothing was wrong with it… the ink was full. I pulled it out and shook it again… nothing came. I turned it upside down, and… something strange happened…

…The ink came splashing out onto my paper, and some of it went on my shirt.

Everyone turned to look at me, and, rather than being embarrassed or cursing, I just laughed with them. Inside, I was cursing, but… well, one thing I know, society, especially teenagers, they're like wolves. If you get upset, or let your confidence, or attitude waver, it's like throwing them a steak, they tear it apart, and they bite your hand while they're at it.

"Hahaha, Joshy woshy have an accident?" Said a member of the football team, chastising me. I grinned at him, wry, and not about to lose my cool.

"Looks like it… Too bad I let your mom borrow my bib last night… man, she was a messy eater." I countered, triggering everyone in the room to go 'ohhhhhhhhhhhhh!'. He didn't look like the kind of person who could take a joke… in fact, he looked more or less like a sore loser, and, after seeing him in our last… 30 or so football games, I knew that he WAS.

Though I didn't show it externally, I was regretting doing that. This guy was the SSHS quarterback, and was probably about a foot taller than me, and about TWO feet wider. I couldn't begin to guess how badly he'd beat me in a fight, and I didn't want to know…

Of course, I'd never been in a fight in my entire life. I didn't want to, either, I mean, I was a pacifist, by nature. And, seeing as I didn't really have many enemies, I never had to worry about it. I was a lover, not a fighter, to put it simply. I grinned, though not mockingly, his face got red, and it wasn't with embarrassment… It was with rage. I felt uneasy when I saw the way he grit his teeth and narrowed his eyes at me.

That guy never said another word to me the rest of the class period… but then again, he didn't say anything at all to ANYBODY. He did, however, persist in staring at me, the look of hate in his eyes… Had I ticked him off that bad, I wondered?

Trying to avoid eye contact with him, I turned my attention back to my desk… and I saw something that kind of freaked me out. A bad omen, of sorts.

On my desk were the drops and blotches of my pen's jet-black ink. No big deal, right? I mean, I'd spilled it, so it came as no surprise…

…But what I noticed were the shapes.

They were vague and barely noticable, you might even have to squint, but…

…I could have SWORN for a moment, the ink looked like a black cat.

I always considered black cats a sign of good luck, considering my spiteful, twisted view of 'luck'… in fact, I had a few strays that visited my porch every day, in search of me. (I fed them scraps quite often, so they always came back) But… I felt a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach when I saw it… Something I didn't like one bit, but couldn't explain, either. I felt like this was some kind of ill omen.

…And in the end, as usual, my gut-feeling was right.

End Chapter 

Ok, you're probably wondering "What the hell, Yiff?" And I'll answer your question.

If you haven't figured it out, this story is a self insertion. This means that I, the story's self-indulgent author, am the main character, the narrator, and, in this case, victim, all in one.

Now, you're probably ALSO wondering, "What the bloody hell does any of this have to do with Sonic, Cream, or any of those characters?"

Well, this story is my way of meshing my reality with the world of Sonic X, but, seeing as I (as in me in the story) am telling it to you personally (the person sitting with me on the bench in the lonely park), I'm telling it in a way that I think you'd understand best, were you oblivious to the Sonic fandom, and all of that. So, the narration, as my way of capturing my own character, is rambling on, pointlessly, like I often do. Also, he's (I'm) also explaining it from the very beginning… and the beginning, it all started with a dream, and ended with a horrible mistake. (by ended, I mean the present time depicted in the prologue, after I made my horrible mistake, which you'll discover later)

So, needless to say, it all started with MY life, not the life of the Sonic characters… but… well, you'll see how I came to 'cross their paths', as they did mine. I realize nothing I'm telling you is making ANY sense whatsoever, but this story itself is DESIGNED to be confusing, up until the end, in a ways that makes you go "OHHHHHHHHHHH!" A million times as you figure out what I meant, one by one, as you read the last few chapters. You're in the dark now, I know, but trust me, it will all come together… (I hope)

Stick with me, guys. You DO want to know what happens to poor lil' ol' me, right? (don't answer that ;)

So please review!

Also, if you have a question about the story, please handle that in a review… provided I have a way to contact you, I'll do my absolute best to answer it ASAP. If not, I can always answer it within the story, or on the outskirts, within one of these little author's note…. thingies. Ok, so, yeah, I've blabbered on too much… Be patient, 2 will be here soon enough.

YiffyOne


	3. Chapter 2

"Lucky 13", Chapter 2: "A Little Blue Dot" 

You wouldn't believe how relieved I was when I made it home, in one piece. The first thing I did was to take my shoes off, put my hair back, and get on my computer, a desperate attempt to busy my mind.

At home, I lived a different life from my computer, but every now and then I took a break from that. I was always busy; when I wasn't working on my novel (which wasn't even half-done), or playing video games, I was out with friends, seeing a movie or just plain goofing off.

I was no hermit, but I never held much of a torch for sports, either. They just never really interested me, so I never got into any of them. I mean, sure, occasionally I'd play volleyball with a few lady friends over on Emerald Coast, but, as a man, I can't lie; that was more or less just a ploy to see how cute they looked in their bathing suits. (Hey, I had fun while I was at it…Don't give me that look, I mean real fun! Not dirty fun… erh, wait… well, maybe just once…)

Still, I liked what little alone time I had. And I pretty much spent all of it in my room, typing away at something or another. It was usually one of my stories; action-packed, exciting stories of the days of old, swords, magic, fantasy, all that good stuff.

But today, as I was typing, I got to thinking…

Maybe it was just a bit cliché, I thought. Usually when I thought of one 'maybe', I started thinking of a whole bunch of them, until my mind was riddled with them.

By-and-by I started questioning what my real motives for writing these stories were. The more I typed, the more I began to realize that _maybe_ I wasn't doing it to occupy myself, _maybe_ I wasn't doing it for publication or fame… I realized that _maybe_ I enjoyed typing stories like this because… Well, _maybe_ I wasn't satisfied with reality.

**_Maybe_**…

I mean, _maybe_ it wasn't enough? I had a good life, and I certainly got my kicks, but… What was it that I felt it was missing?

I asked myself the question over and over again, but came to the conclusion that neither intuitive thinking, nor logic were going to give me my answer. The maybes were never a good thing to get started on, because your mind would get addicted, and frustrate you endlessly. There was plenty of space for answers, but not enough for all the questions, and as a result, I felt unbalanced, bizarre. Suddenly, something came to my head, a random thought, a result of searching for something I hadn't archived in my jumbled, disorganized brain.

Just like when you're looking for something, but you end up finding something better as a sheer coincidence, something that makes you forget all about what you were looking for in the first place.

…I started thinking about dream-girl again.

Why was it whenever my mind had even the smallest vacancy in it, she rented it out? The answer was simple, I found: she was…entrancing to think about.

And when I gave it some thought, it wasn't even the sex, nor was it the happiness thinking about it brought me… It was…

Just her.

That was enough for me to become captivated by her utter perfection. The pleasurable, yet foggy vision of her came to my mind for the umpteenth time, and with it, came that longing, light-headed feeling. Just that feeling seemed to wisp away any built up anxiety, any stress or pain or confusion I may have felt, all of it was completely forgotten. It was just me and her, sitting there, in a state of what one might call lingering adoration, for what seemed like the longest, ever-lasting, and yet short, fleeting period of time I'd ever experienced.

It was scary, and yet amazing. How when opposites collide, and yet don't cancel out, they instead create an infinite vacuum of an emotion that's nothing short of indescribable. And when one feels something that's indescribable, that person is in no place to speculate; all there is, is the moment.

And I must say, I had an awfully long moment.

"Joshua?" Came my mom's voice, snapping me out of my little daydream.

I looked left and right, feeling as if I'd completely lost track of my location, the time of day, everything. I looked over at her, my look probably one of confusion. She gave me one of her inquisitive looks, and I sighed, seeing it was just her, leaning back in my computer chair with closed eyes.

"What?"

"Are you alright? You're acting strange." She said, voice blunt and indifferent as ever. I opened one eye lazily to look at her.

"Hmm?"

"Joshua." She said, more sternly.

"_What_?" I said, more whiningly. She put her hands on her hips, and I breathed out once, hopelessly. Mom was at least three times smarter than I was, and nobody knew that better than me. She was one of the only people who could see past my act.

I put my hands behind my head, and closed my eyes again.

"Fine. I… Well, I had this dream last night." I confessed. She cocked her head.

"What kind of dream?"

I smirked mischievously.

"An… amusing one."

"Oh." She said, simply. I couldn't help but chuckle at how she narrowed her eyes in a disapproving way at my manner. "Ok… Normally I'd say this is the kind of talk you'd have with your daddy, but, seeing as he's not the sharpest stick in the bundle, I'll just have to deal with the discomfort of doing it myself."

"You can always leave me alone and let me grow out of it…" I offered, grinning.

"Nice try, but your daddy's proof enough that that's not something you 'grow out of'…" She told me, looking annoyed. I snickered at her implication.

"Heh, alright, but I don't think it's that big of a deal." I said, fully mellowing out. I never had any trouble talking to my mom, since we were more or less of the same mind, most of the time.

I _was_ uncomfortable about giving her the specifics, but she had a habit of giving advice before I'd even explained the entire situation, so I figured I'd just be vague, and let her yap along until she was convinced that she'd done her job as a parent and go away.

"If it wasn't a big deal, you wouldn't have said that." She pointed out. I tilted my head.

"Said what?"

"It's not a big deal." She said, a knowing look glued to her sly, knowing eyes. I frowned.

"Mooom, you're being omniscient again…" I said, in a fake whiney sort of way. She grinned at that. It was actually something I said quite often, as a way of saying 'touché' to my mother.

"Ok, no more jacking around, tell me… What is it about this dream that made you swoon like a wooed schoolgirl?" She asked me. I looked at her, a mixture of insulted, and taken aback.

"I wasn't swooning!"

"Yes you were." She countered, simply, folding her arms. I was quiet and defiant for a moment, before I realized that proving my mother wrong was impossible, because she was always right. I looked at her, with a vulnerable expression.

"I…was _swooning_?"

She nodded.

"Yep. And the fact that you didn't even realize it only proves my point further." She said to me, coherent and poker-faced, as always.

I admired mom in the fact that she had all the qualities of a know-it-all, but wasn't smug about it. She said I took after her in the intellectual department, but inside I knew I'd never live up to her mind's massive capacity; not fully anyway.

And she was just as smart as she was wise. If I asked her, she'd be fully capable of helping me with math, biology, history, anything without even the use of a textbook. I could ask her how to spell anything, and she'd never once been wrong. You could ask her the meaning of a word, and she'd always know it. I could make up a word and ask her what it meant, but she'd just say 'No such word, nice try Joshua'. I'd never actually asked mom about her IQ or anything like that, and even if I did, she'd avoid the question, but as far as I was concerned, she was a genius.

There was no outsmarting her, but it was possible to talk your way around her, which I'd done on countless occasions. There wasn't much of a trick to it, it was basically just letting her lecture you for a while, and giving her enough feedback to let her know you've learned your lesson, or something like that.

"Joshua. Focus." She reminded me. I came out of my trance.

"Wha?"

She sighed, shaking her head.

"Nothing. I'll leave alone now, you're just not with it today." She said, exiting the room.

I didn't say anything, just puzzled over how uncommon it was for mom to do that. Mom, giving up? What in the world? I hadn't even told her what she wanted to know yet… heck, she hadn't even lectured me. Was I really THAT out of it?

"And Joshua," She suddenly said, poking her head through my door frame just enough so I could see her piercing, see-right-through-you gray eyes, "Try not to get too sucked in to your fantasy. You just might lose track of reality…"

With that, she shut my door, disappearing from sight. Her last few words hung in my head, and I scoffed at how void of meaning they were. I hated it when she spoke in riddles… I guess it was sort of her way of keeping me on my toes.

Grumbling, and eager to talk to somebody a little more my age, I got online, a tedious task that took me nearly a 20 minutes. Yes, I was one of the unfortunate victims of dialup… That, on top of the fact that my computer was more than 6 years old, and it's OS even older than that. My computer… It personified slowness. I vocalized my hatred for the contraption's obsoleteness on a daily basis, but I suppose it's just human nature to want the cutting-edge stuff, and complain about what you're forced to use. Even if the newer technology holds only a very microscopic significance over the older, that tends to be the common reaction in the fickleness of society.

When I finally got online, the first thing I saw made me smile.

**Writes and Reads4:34PM: **Finally! What took you so long?

I grinned, glad that Star had missed me. I began to type, but another IM came up.

**Amycoolz19914:34PM: **HI

I laughed at the capital letters and lack of punctuation. It wasn't that Amy was illiterate or anything, her writing was actually quite grammatically and punctually sound, but I think it was more that she was just too lazy to bother with it outside of story-writing. Star and I were different by habit.

I separated the IM's and clicked the little 'respond' icon on Amy's first (she was the more impatient of the two, so it was best to answer hers first, or she'd feel ignored)

**AlbelTheWicked44:35PM: **Hey Ames! How did your biology test go:3

I moved on to Star's IM.

**AlbelTheWicked44:35PM: **Yo, shorty!

I laughed at my own crude sense of humor, and laughed even harder at the responses it earned me.

**Writes and Reads4:35PM: ** I'll pummel you!

And…

**Amycoolz19914:35PM: **DUDE, IT WAS BORING AND LONG

I smiled to myself. I liked to tease Star more than I did Amy, probably because it was so much easier. She did the same thing to me though, only utilized the use of more physical threats. Me and Star, at least online, were almost always of the same mind. Don't know if I mentioned it before, but Star and I had an almost frightening amount of stuff in common with one another.

With another 'bling' sound, I read Amy's IM, and frowned at it.

**Amycoolz19914:36PM: **BRB, CHORES

With that, the girl promptly put up an away message, barring me from talking to anything but an automated response. I closed out her IM and began typing away at Star's again.

**AlbelTheWicked44:36PM: **Lmao, Don't take it to heart, Star, I like you short. -

**Writes and Reads4:36PM: **Yeah, yeah, kissup. rolls eyes

**AlbelTheWicked44:36PM: **Heh, dang proud of it. ;3

**Writes and Reads4:36PM: ** lol

**Writes and Reads4:36PM: **Whatever

**Writes and Reads4:37PM: **I heard you really PO'd Benji Watson earlier today!

With that cheery, congratulatory message, I felt my heart sink, and my bones chill. Shakily, I typed my hesitant, unenthusiastic response.

**AlbelTheWicked44:38PM: **I guess I did, huh? Man, he's not THAT mad, is he?

Seeing how timid and apologetic I was, Star didn't waste any time in showing concern.

**Writes and Reads4:39PM: **Uh oh… I didn't think about that. No wonder you were in such a hurry to get home earlier! Um… You wanna come over to my place? You can tell my dad about it, I'm sure he can teach you a thing or two about self-defense… You know, just in case.

I was flattered by Star's offer, but frankly, I didn't think it would help.

**AlbelTheWicked44:39PM: **Thanks, Star, but I don't think any of your dad's judo or military techniques would help me against a bulldozer of a guy like Watson; he'd snap me like a twig. Besides, mine is the way of peace… If Benji wants to pound me, then I won't stop him, nor will I fight back, it's just not in me.

**Writes and Reads4:40PM:** Don't talk like that, Josh! You do what you have to do to keep yourself in one piece, you hear me? If something like that happened to you, I'd be **very** upset!

**AlbelTheWicked44:41PM: **I know, and I'm thankful to have a friend like you because of that, but I'm kind of skeptical… Something really weird happened the other day, and I've got the worst feeling… I haven't felt like this since…

I thought about it for a second.

**AlbelTheWicked44:41PM: **Star, did I ever tell you about that time, when I was 4?

I knew I did, at least I thought I did. Besides my mom and dad, and some other members of my family, Star and Amy were the only ones that knew about it.

**Writes and Reads4:41PM: **Yeah… You mean the time when Sonic the Hedgehog saved you?

I smiled faintly. So she did remember.

**AlbelTheWicked44:42PM: **Yeah, that's it.

The faint recollection of that one time came floating back into my heart. My dream, my nightmare, my experience. I was only a tot back then, 4 years old, mom said.

It was when we'd just moved to Station Square. I remembered being fascinated by the city; it was so big, so busy, and the time just flew by as fast as it pleased, regardless of passersby, in a similar fashion as the ignorant taxi drivers. Everything was in perpetual motion, everything was alive. The town embodied speed and racket.

I remembered seeing the tall skyscrapers for the first time, finding that they lived up to their name, clawing at the clouds above. I felt compelled to look up at them; all around me, seeming to draw me in to each of them. I'd spin around to look at this one, then at another, until I was so dizzy I thought I'd pass out.

Everything was happening so fast, and it began to make sense that Sonic would live in a place like this.

From when I was very small, to now, I'd always heard floating rumors about Sonic the Hedgehog and his gang. The fastest thing on two feet, the courage emblazoned hero, the three-foot tall celebrity. But back then I was young, and naïve; he was nothing but a spiky blue fuzzball, to me. He was fun to look at; fun to talk about, he was something I wanted to hug.

One thing mom and dad told me consistently when we made the move to Station Square was that that was where Sonic lived. I remember how joyous I was, how I danced around like cute, innocent little kids do, and persisted to pester my mom on the drive to our new home with my excited, relentless questions, most of those being "Are we there yet?"

When we finally arrived, though, and I saw those towering structures, and had a taste of the innovative pace of city life, my infantile, one-tracked mind moved to focus on that, and for the time, I forgot about the navy hero.

That is, until that one day…

(flashback)

_ age 4 POV_

I woke up between my mommy and daddy, rubbing my eyes, and looking around. I crawled out of our bed, and walked around until all the sleepy was gone, and my eyes would open all the way up. I looked over at mommy and daddy, and they were still asleep. That was ok, though, I didn't mind if they napped a little while. I pulled the string that made our curtains go 'whoosh', and in came the light from our window. It was nice and bright outside, and I wanted to play. Feeling happy, I looked out the window, and saw something really neat, something I'd never seen ever.

It was a little far away, but outside there was a real big, shiny thing. It looked to me like a toy. A really, REALLY big toy. No, really, this was the biggest toy I'd ever, ever seen; it was taller than some of the buildings!

I opened the window a little bit, and lots of loud noises eeked through, and it was so loud, I shut the window again, because it hurt my ears. I watched the toy some more, and I saw it kick the pizza place really hard, and break it all to pieces. I was wondering why the toy was knocking all the buildings down, and making so much noise while it was at it. I watched some more, and I thought I saw something else move. I squinted my eyes until I saw a little blue dot, which was moving all over the place really fast, sometimes jumping up onto the toy and pushing it down. Every time the toy fell down, I thought it was funny.

The toy kept getting back up though.

I looked over at my mommy and daddy; they were still just as asleep as they'd been 5 minutes ago. I thought for sure that the noises that came through our window when I opened it would wake them up, but it didn't. Our room was sound-proof… That means you can't hear anything outside when all the doors and windows are shut. The man who put the stuff in said it wasn't a good idea, saying something about an Egg-guy, or something. But my mommy wouldn't have it. She said she needed absolute silence to sleep, and it was true.

But when she got to sleep, she was just like daddy; an explosion wouldn't wake her up.

I looked outside again, and this time the toy swatted the little blue dot, and knocked it into a car. I didn't laugh this time, because for some reason, I didn't think the poor blue dot would get up again.

But he did.

I wanted to go outside so I could see the toy and the blue dot up closer, but mommy and daddy were still asleep.

I waited a minute.

They were still asleep.

This was taking too long! I didn't want to miss the big toy and the speedy little blue dot…

"I'm sorry, mommy, I know it's gainst' the rules, but I wanna go see. Bye-bye." I said to her, as if she'd hear me in her slumber.

With that I wandered out our apartment door. There was nobody around, nobody in the hallway, nobody in the elevator, nobody in the lobby… I walked out onto the sidewalk.

There were no people anywhere, but the ground was shaking, and there was a lot of loud noises.

I looked over on my right, and I saw it, the biggest toy ever, coming right at me. It was coming fast, too. I suddenly felt a little scared; I knew the toy was bigger than the buildings, but it looked so much bigger when it got closer… It could crush me flatter than a pancake if it accidentally stepped on me.

It came closer and closer, and I had to strain my neck to look up, it was so much taller than me. I suddenly lost that sense of adventure, that sense of curiosity, and I just felt strange, and alone… and small. I felt so very small.

I just stood there, not knowing what else to do as I gazed upon the big, loud toy. It got closer and closer, until finally it was close enough for me to stick my arm out and touch it.

The robot stopped when it was real close, and then I nearly jumped out of my britches when I heard it talk, in a funny, static-covered voice, kind of like the voice when it comes out of a walky-talky.

"Oh? Ho-ho! Looky here, Sonic, a cute little boy! Hmm, just think of the bad press! "Sonic the Hedgehog, unable to rescue innocent child…"

Then the toy didn't seem so fun. The toy started to just seem mean, as it raised it's big, mean foot over my head, and started coming down. I felt tears flow freely from my eyes. Why did the toy want to squish me? Why was it so mean?

I didn't wanna be squished!

"Bye-bye junior!" Said the mean ol' toy, almost like it was happy it was about to flatten me.

"No!" Came another voice. This voice wasn't mean… This voice sounded dashing, kind of like my daddy's… This voice made me feel safe.

Before I knew what was going on, I felt a huge impact, and my tummy twisted like I was gonna puke. I heard a loud sound, and I was crying, crying loud because I thought I'd been crushed.

But I hadn't been crushed. I felt a strong, wiry arm clamped around me, and I felt a strong wind batter me from behind, like when you stick your head out the window of a moving car.

Everything was going so fast, I didn't know what to think, but I stopped crying, because I heard a voice, a soft, nearly inaudible whisper, that said:

"Gotcha…"

I hadn't registered the information yet, but I felt like this voice was on my side, like it would keep me out of harm's way. And even for a little kid running on naïve guesses, I was right.

Whoever this was set me down, and I rubbed my eyes as free of tears as I could, until I could see a vague, blurry image of a familiar figure, not much taller than I was, and bluer than the big water at the beach. I was too upset and confused to really think about who it was, but I knew one thing; this blue dot was my friend. He saved me from the mean toy.

He patted me gently on the head, and I could see his calm, soothing green eyes. They were friendly and inviting, and they calmed me down a lot. He stood up and talked to me again.

"It's gonna be ok, little guy. Just stay here and keep quiet, and I'll take care o' that big bully for the both of us." He told me. I nodded a little, hoping he'd beat the mean toy up really bad.

I blinked once, and he was gone, faster than mommy's car, faster than a bullet train.

He was so fast!

I peeked from behind the car I was sitting next to, sniffling, and fighting to keep the unrelenting tears from my eyes so I could see.

While I was watching the blue dot and the mean toy fight, I heard a different noise, one that sounded kind of like an airplane. I looked up, and I saw it… A really neat-looking, big airplane. It was fast, too, but not as fast as the blue dot. It went sailing across the sky, and I saw something wink at me from it's hull, and it came falling down, glowing a pretty yellow glow. I saw the blue dot jump on the side of a building, and run up the side of it, and then jump off into the air, really high up to catch the glowy yellow light in his hand.

The big, mean toy swatted at him, but he missed, and the blue dot landed, gripping the glowing yellow thing in his hand. His hand glowed, and then he jumped up into the air, and did a flip, then another, and another, until he was flipping so fast, he looked like a little blue ball. The ball made a funny noise, and floated in the air for a minute, and then it shot forward like a rocket into the big mean toy.

The toy made a sound kind of like fireworks, and it had a great big hole in it where the ball had gone through. The toy stumbled around a bit, then I heard the loudest explosion ever, and the light was so bright I was fighting to cover my eyes and my ears at the same time.

After the loud sound was over, it just got quiet. Really quiet. Quiet and lonesome. I began to feel alone again, and I wanted my daddy.

After what seemed like forever, I saw the blue dot, running around, looking exhausted, looking left and right. He was searching all over the place for something… Was he looking for me?

I stood up, and he finally caught sight of me, and ran over, just as fast as ever. I looked up into his eyes, and he just looked relieved to see that I was safe. He wiped the sweat from his head, and smiled at me, holding up two fingers for victory.

I smiled back, and held up my fingers, too.

He started laughing, and I realized who he was.

So I did what I'd always wanted to do when I first met him, and I threw myself at him, hugging the blue fuzzball with all my might.

"Oof! Heh, affectionate little tyke, aren'tcha?" He said, in a somewhat strangled voice.

(end flashback)

That was all that I remembered of the day I met Sonic, the day he saved my life. I generally had a really horrible sense of memory, but this was something I remembered as clear as rain. Though, the thing I remembered most clearly was that gut-wrenching feeling I felt when Dr. Eggman's robot was about to smear me across the sidewalk. It wasn't as intense, but I felt that same feeling when I saw that black cat in the ink…

Now that I thought about it, I felt that exact same feeling every time I looked directly into the eyes of a black cat… And every time I felt it, it was like something horrible was going to happen.

**AlbelTheWicked44:45PM: **Heh, maybe I'm just freaking out.

I typed this lightly, hoping my words were true, though knowing they weren't.

**Writes and Reads4:45PM: **Don't worry Josh… If worst comes to worst, maybe good ol' blue will come and save you again, ah?

I laughed at Star's optimistic, cheery response. It was a very nice thought, seeing Sonic again, after all of these years.

I watched the news, and Sonic was still all over it. Things hadn't really changed in the past 13 years, except of course, the fact that, after the incident, me, mom, and dad moved out of Station Square, and into a nice little house on the outskirts of the city.

Eggman still attacked Station Square on a weekly basis, but Sonic always battled him off, not having aged a bit since I last saw him. I wondered if I'd ever see the blue blur, face to face, ever again?

**AlbelTheWicked44:46PM: **Heh, that would be a kick, huh?

**Writes and Reads4:46PM: **What, you don't think it could happen?

I frowned at the computer screen. I had some pretty good luck, but I wasn't THAT idealistic.

**AlbelTheWicked44:47PM: **Come on, Star, be a little more realistic… Sonic's too busy with Eggman and Station Square and all that stuff to bother with me. I'll probably never talk to him again. Last time I just _happened_ to be the only un-evacuated civilian in the vicinity.

**Writes and Reads4:47PM: **Sonic's known for his ability to be in more than one place at a time. He's a super hero! He's capable of the impossible!

I laughed. She was actually right, when I thought about it. The way I remembered Sonic, there was no doubt in my mind that he could do anything. I really wish I had the chance to talk to him again.

**AlbelTheWicked44:48PM: **You just like him cuz he's shorter than you.

**Writes and Reads4:48PM: **Can it, buddy, I'm trying to cheer you up, here… But telling you to smile would be awfully awkward if I were to knock your teeth out, first.

I laughed at the sheer violence of her reaction to the smallest poke at her lack of vertical presence.

**AlbelTheWicked44:49PM: **Hey, all I need is somebody who's always here for me, someone I can always count on. And I have you for that, so I don't need Sonic.

I meant every word, too. Star was a good person to talk too when you're feeling uneasy. She always made me feel accepted, and she never failed to cheer me up.

**Writes and Reads4:49PM: **Wow, that was unbelievably gay…

**Writes and Reads4:49PM: **Finally, you're back to normal!

I practically rolled in the floor laughing at how mean that was, but I didn't let on.

**AlbelTheWicked44:50PM: **Ow, my feelings.

**Writes and Reads4:50PM: ** lmao

**Writes and Reads4:50PM: **You were expecting an "Awwwww!"?

I laughed at her manner. Star was one of the most hilarious people I knew… I swear she was just so funny.

**AlbelTheWicked44:50PM: **From you? No. XD

**Writes and Reads4:51PM: **Told you I'd get you back for all the short comments! You didn't think I'd just hit you and let that be the end of it, did you?

**AlbelTheWicked44:51PM: ** Well, I don't know, you have an awfully 'short' fuse…

I cracked up at her response.

**Writes and Reads4:51PM: ** that's it, punk! If you think Benji'd beat you up bad, just you wait!

**AlbelTheWicked44:52PM: **Ok, ok! I take it back! lmao

**Writes and Reads4:52PM: **…lowers rifleOk then, I'll spare your life, for now.

**Writes and Reads4:52PM: ** kick

**AlbelTheWicked44:53PM: **Aww, that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me. -

**Writes and Reads4:53PM: **lmao

**Writes and Reads4:53PM: **Don't get used to it! One more short comment like that, I'll give you a kick right where it counts!

I laughed at her. Funny how our version of 'teasing' one another usually consisted of Star threatening me, and me flirting, or being perverted.

**AlbelTheWicked44:54PM: **I know, I know, not even Sonic would be able to save me from _you_.

**Writes and Reads4:54PM: **lol

**Writes and Reads4:55PM: **Don't forget it!

**AlbelTheWicked44:55PM: **lol

I was quiet for a moment, trying to think of something else to say.

**AlbelTheWicked44:56PM: **Star

**Writes and Reads4:56PM: **Yeah?

**AlbelTheWicked44:56PM: **Thanks for being here for me. I don't know if it means anything, but… This is why I wouldn't trade you for all the company in the world.

Star didn't type anything for a minute, and I grinned, knowing she was trying to think of a way to deny her heart's own sweetness, without seeming like a total heel.

**Writes and Reads4:57PM: **Aw, cut it out, ya big softy. You know I feel the same way about you, that's why I haven't decapitated you for all the short jokes. Though you're treading the line…

**AlbelTheWicked44:58PM: **I wouldn't tease you so if you weren't so cute when you get angry -

**Writes and Reads4:58PM: **And I wouldn't punch you so if it weren't so **funny** to see you in **pain**.

Again I found myself laughing nonstop at her clever ways of tying comedy to violence.

**AlbelTheWicked44:59PM: **rofl

Star and I chatted a bit longer, just casual stuff, more of the same friendly banter and teasing, until she had to get offline. We said our fond farewells and I signed off as well, seeing as Amy's chores obviously included painting somebody's house, considering how long she'd been gone.

It wasn't very late in the day, and I didn't feel like writing, so I had loads of time to waste. I gave it some thought, and considered going into town and seeing a movie. I shook my head.

Nah, a movie was never any fun without Star or Amy, and they were both busy.

Maybe I'd go to blockbuster and rent a game or something?

Again, I shot the idea down, recalling the enormous fee I owed.

I just sat there, lost in thought, nothing coming to mind. I was horribly bored.

…Suddenly I heard a scraping noise, and I'm pretty sure I nearly jumped out of my skin. Shaken, I turned to look at my bedroom window, to see…

…A black cat.

End Chapter 

Yay! I'm finally finished!

Now, I'll just put this out in the open, I'm VERY proud of this chapter!

I think you'll all really love it!

And what's this? Another ominous feline? Could it be that the 'omen' is coming to head? omfg, what will happen to me? What do all these black kitties mean?

And, at last, you can see that this IS a Sonic fanfic, and I've finally managed to show you some relevance in that with my little flashback, which I had a lot of fun writing. I also had fun writing the part with Star and the IM! I know she's reading this, and I really really hope she loves it as much as I know she will!

Anyway, I really can't think of much else to write, but I'll say this: The most climactic part of the fic's dramatic, angstier parts is coming…. meaning Cream, and the other characters you're dying to see will be here soon as well, so stay tuned… AND REVIEW! Please?


	4. Chapter 3

"Lucky 13" Chapter 3: "Just One" 

As soon as my eyes met the cat's green-yellow, piercing irises, an intense, freaky feeling gripped me. It was nothing I could describe, nothing. Even in it's vastness, the English language simply doesn't hold enough accuracy for me to possibly articulate it vocally… Even now.

It was sort of a mixture of horror… Intimidation, and bewilderment. For some odd reason, this obsidian feline had the presence of a god. It was as if it held ownership over everything it looked at, everything it touched… they belonged to it, and it alone. And it was looking right at me…

I felt like its eyes were absorbing my essence as I peered into them, unable to rip them from my view. It was almost as if they were tugging at my very soul…

…It wasn't a nice experience, nor was it bad, it was just plain odd... But…

I lost a part of myself that day, looking into those eyes…

A part I never thought I'd recover.

The cat said nothing, did nothing, and visibly portrayed no emotion, but those eyes… They called to me, like a siren of the sea, leading me to my demise, it seemed… And yet I could not resist… nor did I want to.

The eyes enthralled, yet terrified me; I felt as if the creature owned me already. I felt that if I didn't obey its every whim, I'd meet a horrible, painful, utterly gruesome fate. It scratched at the window once more, its eyes relaying something I identified as impatience. Frantic and hasty, I hopped up from my chair and ran to the window, never taking my eyes off its keen orbs, and the thin slits of their pupils.

It looked up at the clasp that sealed my window from the world outside, beckoning me to open it. Quickly, as not to anger it, I released the clasp, and lifted the accursed glass up. I almost winced as I looked down into its eyes, flashing with a sudden sense of purpose. Now there was nothing separating the godly critter and myself, save a few empty feet of air. I gulped audibly.

Against my expectations, the cat turned about, showing me its back, before leaping out of the windowsill, and onto the dirt path outside. It scampered nonchalantly across the worn road, only about 3 yards before it turned around, and looked at me again, with those controlling, bewitching eyes…

…I felt compelled to follow it. It was like no instinct I'd ever before experienced, so powerful, so primal and promiscuous. Not giving a second thought to my family, friends, or anything that gave relevance to my life, I stuck one leg out the window, awkwardly.

It was a bit of a tight fit, seeing as I was nearly 18, and the window was only about a 2 by 4 foot opening. Rather ungracefully, I stumbled out of the window, and ran after the black cat. I was glad I already had some shoes on… The road outside of my house was just a tad rocky.

The cat almost seemed to smirk, seeming pleased that I was following. Turning about again, it ran, quite fast, down the road, it's shiny raven pelt gleaming in the afternoon sunlight.

_Dingle-ling._

"…?"

I thought I heard a bell, though I did not know it's origin. It's possible it was only in my head, but… It was such a lovely sound. I wasn't even sure if I'd heard anything at all… but I wanted to hear it again.

I snapped back to attention when I saw how far ahead of me the cat was, and mentally scolded myself, sprinting as quickly as I could to catch up. It was very fast, as most of the feline class are, so I had to really put everything I had into my legs just to keep up with it. There was no traffic present in the rural, foliage-abundant area in which I resided; there never was. All the traffic clogged up in Station Square, and prevented any but a car or two every now and then from seeping down past our little house.

The cat didn't run in the direction of the city, though… It turned right, through a rickety little fence that had long been broken. I hopped over it, but I tripped, not able to jump quite high enough. As a reflex I tucked my arms and my head into my stomach, and as a result, I didn't hit the ground that hard, but rolled harmlessly across the soft grass, which danced in the gentle May breeze.

I got up, distressed, looking left and right for the cat, only to find the thing directly in front of me, looking at me with those inviting eyes. It was almost as if it was laughing at my clumsiness… How vindictive, I thought.

It turned about, lifting its tail in an astute, somewhat disdainful manner, and bounded off, perfectly balanced with every step, like it was teaching me a lesson in posture, and feline grace. I picked myself up, and attempted to duplicate its whimsical, yet masterful aptitude for frolicking, but I'm sure I still had a lot of work to do, as I certainly didn't feel nearly as smooth in movement as the charming feline.

The cat never got too far ahead, nor did it let me catch up too much, it only kept running, turning its head every now and then to check and see if I was still on its tail. I was surprised to find that I was enjoying myself; I'd never admired nature so much as I did right now, chasing my feline guide across the boundless, vast meadows that stretched out for miles beyond my house. The grass came to my ankles, and swayed this way and that, in sync with its companions, its trillions of kin, side by side, to and frau; a ritual of bowing to the mighty winds that cut across them.

The cat just kept running, and before long, I realized that its stamina was clearly outlasting my own, as I grew weary; my legs would push me no further. Exhausted completely, I fell to my knees, panting heavily, a faint attempt to catch my second wind. After an exasperated moment of regaining a small portion of my fleeting vigor, I raised my head to look around, sure I'd have lost the mysterious ebony mammal by now.

My eyes grew wide at what I saw.

There was no cat, no sign of it anywhere, but a forest. A huge, wicked-looking forest, the kind you read about in scary stories. The mangled branches of the old, miserable trees tangled with one another viciously, the wind blowing them, giving them the appearance of life. It was… Creepy.

The trees looked like they were trying to strangle one another, in an endless vacuum of violence, hate, misery…enmity at its purest. The noise they made as they wrestled endlessly with the unforgiving breeze was nothing short of spine-tingling.

My heart clawed its way into my throat as I witnessed nature at it's ugliest.

What scared me even more was… For some unexplainable reason, I wanted to go _in there_. I shook my head, berating myself for such utter foolishness. What would lie within such a repugnant place that would be of any interest to me? What value could exploring such a hideous jungle bring?

Jingle Jangle… 

"…?"

I heard it again… the bell. This time it was louder, and I could discern its direction…. It was coming straight from within that forest… Just my luck.

My mind wanted to go home. My mind also wanted to go into the woods, and find out what it was that seemed to be drawing me in to it… What it was that led me here, what it was that made that lovely jingling sound. I had to hear it again.

There was something magical about the sound, something melodious, something ominously alluring. I couldn't begin to question why I wanted such a simple pleasure as hearing a bell ring THIS badly, all I could do was want it; trying to do anything else with my mind, or motives only made me want it more.

So strange…

Was it some sort of supernatural force driving my instincts wild with these odd symbols? Was it some higher power calling out to me, some unknown onlooker pushing me toward my destiny?

I didn't care. I _needed_ to hear it again.

My fears were evaporated, and in a fit of impatient desire, I became the very embodiment of something I'd never been before, and something I'd never be again… dauntless.

Superfluous to my fatigue, I ran into the thick of the hideous woods. The trees groaned with the wind, moving about, their branches swatting at me, scratching me, as if to stop me from making a horrible mistake. The way their bark almost formed a deformed, mutated, sad sort of face almost made me pity them.

But their plight fell on deaf ears. I didn't listen to them, just pressed onward, my heart beating faster as I neared the central-most part of the forest.

My eyes served only to catch a swift flurry of gray, before clenching shut against the sharp pain of being whipped by the tree's thorny scourges, so I closed them, and made my way through on determination alone. I heard lots of things, mostly the nightmares of the damned willows that haunted this place, but also the latent thoughts in the back of my mind… Thoughts like some of the things my mom told me when I was younger.

I remembered what she told me after I explained to her why I went out to see 'the big toy' in the first place. I told her I was curious. She frowned at me, and looked at me with those firm, maternal eyes.

"Curious? Curiosity killed the cat, Joshua."

Curiosity killed the cat. Was I braving these briars because of curiosity? Was I playing the cat of the metaphor? Would it really… kill me?

I pushed my way through the woods, not wanting the efforts I'd already contributed to have been a waste. I'd never been in so much physical pain in my life. The trees were all scratching me, and I felt the hot, oozing warmth of fresh blood leaking from the nastier cuts. It seemed that some of the briars had been honed like a razor, because they seemed to eat through my denim jeans like they were thinner than a tissue. My scalp was in the most tremendous pain of all; the branches and thorns were all grabbing me by the hair, my precious, lengthy locks being pulled, tangled, ripped from my head as I blindly struggled my way through.

After what seemed like an eternity of the torment, I suddenly tripped on a stray root, not entirely submerged in the dusty soil. I landed smack on my face, and for a second I swear I saw stars. But then I realized… Open ground! I was at the center… I had to be. All the other trees were so bunched together, so clumped and tightly woven that it was impossible not to touch any of them. And now I didn't have to be in pain anymore. At least not until I left…

I just lay there on the ground a moment, resting, panting, bleeding a little. I had no serious wounds, but some of them were deep enough to leave a small scar… and I didn't even want to think about what my hair must've looked like.

After a few moments, I heard it again… but this time it wasn't so pleasant…

_Tinkle._

I looked up, my eyes easily relaying my weariness and misery.

I saw them again, but this time… This time they were horrifying. No more intrigue, no more respectful sense of power… Just pure, unbridled fear.

I could do nothing but shiver under the gaze of the coal-black cat.

It's eyes narrowed sadistically, and it's tail flicked about impatiently, as if it were about to pounce upon an unfortunate victim… one which I prayed wouldn't be me.

Though the feline was not even a fifteenth of my size… it was as if I was not pitted against a housecat… but a panther.

The bell around the cat's neck jingled as it looked up behind me… What was it looking at….?

I turned my head, and felt my heart sink. Up in the trees… stuck amongst the branches was a ladder. I'd come in that way… and walked under it in the process. What was it doing here?

I felt my skin crawl with nervousness. I'd never before been truly intimidated by bad luck… I worshipped it up until this point.

I heard a voice… a faint voice, but one that echoed from all directions.

"…So you don't believe in luck, huh…? What is it with you mortals and thinking you're smarter than fate? So much bad luck… and you've somehow managed to survive? Heh. Now I really don't know if you're really lucky or really unlucky. Sometimes it's hard for even me to tell the difference… Hmm… So what to do with you? Hmmm…"

"…Oh my God…" I uttered helplessly, as I came to a horrible realization.

I'd screwed up big time.

…The bad luck… up until now, I played with it, spiteful and mocking of its so-called power. I didn't really believe… It was just something I did to insult a concept I didn't believe in. I thought that bad luck didn't exist... But now I saw nothing but misery and misfortune… I had deceived myself into making an undoable mistake!

And now, it seemed like some kind of god, or rather goddess was about to pass judgement on me.

"…Ahhhhh!" I shouted, sheer fear etched into my face as I pried the snakeskin from my pocket, and threw it on the ground before me, backing away, as if it were a bomb. I had to get away from all the bad luck!

"_Hehehe! Well aren't you a cute mortal? There's no escaping it now! So-rry!"_ The voice came again. Were I not in the state I was in, I might have mistaken the voice to be a little girl, but I could tell the gods were just fooling with me.

I looked at the face of the cat, and it bared its fangs. I backed away some more, scared for my life. The cat did not run at me, nor did it walk straight toward me… but… it zigzagged.

I was confused for a moment, but then I realized exactly what it was doing. My knees buckled as the evil cat crossed my path precisely 13 times.

I shook my head, and backed away from the cat, wishing I'd never come to this place… wondering how I could've been so foolish. I jumped about a foot into the air and gasped as I backed into something that certainly wasn't a tree… Then I heard a shattering noise.

I slowly turned my head, and… when I saw it, I almost felt like screaming.

I'd backed into a mirror, and knocked it down… breaking it into exactly 13 shards of glass. I saw my own horrified expression in all of them, and it scared me even more. I'd never been so scared… I honestly thought I was about to die from pure bad luck.

As much of it as I'd accumulated, the forest could just…. coincidentally fall on me, or… lightning could shoot out of the cloudless sky… I wouldn't be surprised if I died of old age at 17, with _that_ much bad luck. I had so much of it shadowing me now, anything could happen, not matter how preposterous…

If anything, I thought I'd have a heart-attack. My heart had never beaten so fast… I was literally on the brink of being frightened to death…

I saw the black cat again. It grinned at me, then started to morph into something else. It got smaller, and floated up into the air. Soon it took a shape, and filled with colors.

So this was lady luck.

She wasn't what I imagined at all.

She wasn't a lady, or a girl, or human at all. She was some kind of bat-winged pixie. She looked human outwardly, but she was so small… and yet I could feel nothing but her power peeling off of her in not waves, but torrents.

The oddest little thing I'd ever seen, one could even call her cute. She had an unnatural hair color of I-don't-quite-remember, and her hair was up in an impossible way. She wore mainly black, and had pale skin, and some piercing copper eyes. She almost looked like a miniature punk rocker goth… something-or-other.

Did the goddess of misfortune have a sense of humor, or was she that weird?

Considering luck as I knew it, I wouldn't be surprised at either.

The little fairy looked at me in a smug grin. I felt somewhat intimidated, even though she wasn't even a tenth my size.

"_Hello there, Josh."_ She said to me.

"Wh-… you know…?" I breathed.

"_Your name? Duh. I'm an immortal. I know everything about you. Or at least I've done some… research on you recently."_ She told me.

"Erh… Where…?" I asked, realizing we were no longer in a forest. I looked around.

We were standing on a waterfall, on a waterfall and nothing else. The rest was endless nothingness, nonexistent to the point where it was endless black and endless white both.

"_I'd explain it to you, but… well, you know. I don't feel like it." _She smirked and put her hands behind her head. She fluttered up close to me, and I backed off a little. _"My, quite the scaredy cat, aren't you? Hehe. Cat… Hmm. Oh, that's good. I have a thing for cats you know…"_

I backed off a bit more as she held up a doll of a humanoid black cat or something like that. I fell back, tripping on nothing. I looked up as she grinned at me in a way I deduced as maniacal.

"Wh- what are you doing?" I asked. I had a horrible feeling all of the sudden, or a worse feeling than I'd been having since all of this started. I just knew something bad was going to happen.

"_Hehehe. You'll see. I'm a very busy lady, so I'm afraid I'll just have to cut to the chase. Let's see if we can't give you a more… suiting form, eh? Hehehe. You'll make a lovely pet."_ She said, teasingly.

But I didn't think she was teasing.

I didn't know what she was doing, but all of the sudden, that doll floated about, and twirled in midair. I blacked out.

It felt like I had woken up, but in reality, I'd woken into a dream. I was asleep. I was having a nightmare within a nightmare.

Neither of them were the kind where you wake up in your bed, and praise your lucky stars that it was only a dream, and couldn't hurt you. No, these were the kind of nightmares that were horrifying _because_ they were real. Because they were really happening, could really hurt you, and permanently change everything.

I found myself in a sea of black felines, all meowing and scratching at me. The noise, the claws, it was all driving me insane. I ran from them, as fast as I could. The noise and the pain didn't stop, and they caught me. They covered me, and they were drowning me.

They consumed me completely.

I suffered a horrible death as a human. I felt it. But I came back. I came back nine times as… something else…?

And it was over. My life as Joshua Alan Duncan, the human, the long-haired Casanova, peace-loving jack of all trades, mentor, writer, artist, friend, son, brother… all that stuff. It was gone.

But I didn't know that yet. No. I was still forcing myself to believe this was all some sort of freaky dream. Heck, I might be wishing that to this day. But nightmares, dreams… they don't last this long.

How many people have to have the same nightmare before it's real?

Hah. Just one.

…Just one…

_**End Chapter**_


	5. Chapter 4

"Lucky 13" Chapter 4: "Broken Things" 

I woke up at the feeling of cold, wet, and miserable.

Ever wonder how mud must feel? I don't. I know how it feels. If it feels anything, it feels just like that.

Cold. Wet. Miserable.

And I woke up as mud. The lowliest of life, stepped in, scraped off shoes, hated by all because I was low down, dirty, and unwanted.

It was raining. It was raining hard. I'd never been so wet.

Just the other day I was the luckiest guy on earth, I had talent, charisma, I was good at everything. I was peppy, I was fun to be around.

Now what was I?

If you are what you feel like you are, then I was a dead maggot, floating in a sea of mucky water.

…Well_, that's_ not fun at all, I thought.

Great… all I had left of my talents was my talent for understatement.

I didn't move. I didn't want to. I just wanted to be dead.

I used to be so alive.

I wonder… If you're one thing, and also the exact opposite of that thing at the same time… Are you also everything in between?

Are people who are both heroes and villains everything? Are they gods?

Or is it the other way around?

I wasn't wise enough to figure out the answers. My wisdom was gone. No… the past events proved to me that I never had it at all. I was a fool.

And here I was, a cold, wet, miserable fool.

I didn't bother to open my eyes. I didn't bother to move anything. I didn't even bother to breathe. I wanted to be dead. Death never looked so nice until I was so very cold, wet, and miserable.

I tried to muster my old spirit, my old optimism. It didn't work. My spirit was broken.

And I was broken with it.

So that was it. I was broken. Left out in the rain, because I didn't work the way I was supposed to. Because nobody wanted me. I wasn't good for anything. I was trash.

What do you do with broken things? Do you fix them?

No. You throw them out, because they're worthless. Without even thinking.

It wouldn't matter if you thought about it. You'd do the same thing.

I… I don't blame you, or anybody. It's what I'd do too, I guess. It's what anybody would do, isn't it?

I mean, it's the rational thing to do, right? It's natural…

So I sat there in the mud, sinking. I could hear the storm above, grumbling and growling like a living thing, like an animal. The rain came down harder, and I still didn't move, or open my eyes or do anything. I was too broken.

What's the point of existence when you exist only as something that's already broken?

I didn't care about the answer, or even if there was one. I didn't care about anything. I didn't have hate, only sadness and pity.

And there was nothing more pitiable than myself.

Of all the things that had broken, my self-confidence was broken the worst. I didn't think _that_ one could be repaired by even the greatest of mendings…

Rain. The sound of car's splashing by. Thunder.

…Cold. Wet. Miserable.

I just lay like that for the longest time.

And I cried. I cried without sound, without whimpering or sobbing, or twisting my face or sniffling. Just tears. Broken tears.

You probably couldn't tell in the rain.

"Look mommy! A kitty!" Came an sweet little girl's voice.

I didn't know what was going on. I didn't care. I just lay there in the mud. Not moving, not opening my eyes. I figured maybe if I pretended I was dead for a long enough time, it would really happen.

Pah. If only I were that lucky.

"Oh my, what a strange looking cat…" A woman's voice said.

"I wanna pet him!"

"No no, sweetie. That kitty's probably got some kind of disease or something. Besides, it's a black kitty. That's bad luck." The lady said.

"Aww, but he looks so sad. I wanna make him feel better." The little girl's pouty voice came.

"Honey, mommy will buy you a nice puppy for your birthday. That kitty's dea-…erh, sleeping. We should probably leave him alone. Now come on, let's get to the car before we catch our death out here." The woman's voice said, fading.

It didn't even occur to me that it could have been _me_ they were referring to. But I did however notice how similar the 'kitty's' situation was to my own.

Only innocent little kids like to play in the mud. Only dumb, naïve little children play with broken toys. Parents were there to tell them that they were being foolish at times like those.

And they were right. Broken things aren't meant to be fixed…

I… Wasn't meant to…

…Time passed. I remained motionless, lifeless, cold, wet, miserable, and broken.

I remembered Lady Luck, and her punishment. So this was it.

…What a lame way to kill somebody.

Or _was _she trying to kill me? I'm sure if she'd wanted to do that, she could've done so easily. No, she wanted to make me suffer. She wanted to make me _wish_ I was dead.

And she did just that.

"Dammit!" Came an angry voice. I felt a sharp pain in my side as something collided with me. From the sound that followed, somebody had tripped over me.

I didn't move. I didn't even respond to the pain. I was too depressed. Too out of it.

Too broken.

"Damn mangy little shit!" Came the same man's voice. I felt pain again as something hit me much harder this time. I think somebody kicked me. It hurt… a lot.

I didn't care. I just wished it would have hurt enough to put me out of my misery…

But of course, I wasn't that lucky.

I felt my body rolling down a hill, down, down. I didn't struggle, and I didn't resist. I was broken. Limp, broken, and worthless.

I fell into some water, face first. This water was big enough to submerge my entire body. And I floated out into it, hoping I would drown or something.

I heard a swashing noise, and I tasted salt water.

The ocean? I didn't care. Whatever puts me out of my cold, wet, broken misery.

The waves jostled my limp, broken body this way and that, and I felt like I was drowning in, not the water, but my own sadness. I didn't want to die like this.

But I didn't want to _live_ like this even more.

More empty time passed, and I, if anything, became more and more broken by the second. I thought I would wash out to sea, and be eaten by a shark, or sink into oblivion, or something. No.

Not that lucky. 

I washed ashore, and I felt the biting, sandpapery feeling of laying in wet sand.

I chanced opening my eyes, and I saw my reflection in the wet sand.

…And I realized that Lady Luck must truly believe she is a _riot_.

She'd turned me into a humanoid black cat… thing.

Now on top of everything else, I was a freak of nature… The very incarnation of bad luck…

A soaking wet cat. I now realized why cats hated getting wet.

And for some reason, I wasn't surprised, or sad, or upset, or at least not anymore than I already was. I was too broken to care.

Great.

So I just laid there, wondering if I'd have to get up and finish my_self_ off, or if some harsh force of nature or society would eventually do it for me.

I was too broken to move. I could have moved, physically, I was able. But emotionally, I had nothing left. My spirit, my will, my heart, all broken.

Before, those were the most important parts of me. With those broken, I wasn't me anymore.

Josh was done for.

The rain continued to descend upon me. I wondered if the whole world was as wet as me, or if there was just one, tiny black rain cloud nested perpetually above me. I wondered.

I waited for some happy news. Anything. Even a tiny moment of happiness. I waited.

And… I prayed. I prayed for a miracle. I didn't ask for anything particular, I was too broken. I just asked for a miracle. Not vocally. I just, with my severely broken spirit, reached out, and asked for some kind of miracle. I don't know who I asked. I just asked.

And I think somebody heard me. Because then… I heard her.

"Oh my goodness!"

The voice was remarkably high pitched, but gentle, and impossibly sweet. It rang like a bell in my ears. I think I might have smiled just a little, before I passed out entirely.

Once again, my world faded to shadow.

---+

I thought I had died… Finally died. To this day I'm wondering if I really did die that day.

When I woke up, it was almost like I was living the exact same, broken life. Like I had an extra, or something like that.

I'd already died once, but that was a different kind of death. A metaphorical one. This time I woke up the same. Broken. I was the same as I was before I had died… erh, if I really did die.

But now I was back. Was it some kind of curse? Was I forced to live as a miserable, broken mortal?

Was this my fate? Was my fate punishment? Was my punishment fate?

Too many questions… too many questions for a broken mind to answer.

I lay like that for the longest time, just thinking about how I would deal with being forced to live a broken life.

Then I realized this broken life wasn't quite the same as the last one. This time I wasn't cold, or wet. No.

I was dry, and warm. So very warm. I inhaled a fresh, sweet scent. It was almost a dreamlike smell. _Could_ I have been dreaming?

If it was a dream… would I wake up as Joshua Duncan, or cold, wet, miserable nobody?

I shifted a little, the first motion I'd made since I broke.

I heard a little gasp, and felt a warm, comforting presence. I squinted my eyes together, as the light tried to seep through them.

And I was just a broken thing, waiting for something to happen. I was nobody now that I was broken. I couldn't do anything else. Just wait. And after what I've waited for arrives, I watch it pass me by, and then I wait for something else.

Why? I didn't know. My broken soul couldn't produce an answer.

"Sir…?" Came a familiar shrill, remarkably sweet voice.

It was a voice I was sure I'd heard before, if only in my dreams. My sweeter dreams, dreams I had when I wasn't broken. Before I had gone and gotten my_self_ broken, like a fool.

But no matter how warm, dry, and curious I became, I was still broken. I still did not feel like moving. But, I hesitantly decided that I was curious enough to at least open my eyes. Maybe I'd see something nice.

The light that entered my eyes was a glare at first, and I reflexively lidded them again. Cautiously, I slit them open again. I felt the sting setting in, and becoming a bit less fierce as my eyes pushed out a few drops that the sensation had brought about. The blurry world came into focus… And I…

I _did_ see something nice. So nice that it scared me. It made my broken heart leap like it wasn't broken at all, when I saw that surprised, sweet, adorable, caring… inhuman face.

I… For a second I thought I might have seen the face before.

My broken memory couldn't remember.

I blinked a few times, still trying to get used to the light. It seemed like my eyes were more light sensitive than they were before, even as far back as before I ran into Lady Luck's brick wall, and broke into a million pieces.

I turned my head just enough to look at her and only her. I didn't pay attention to any other detail in the room. I studied her.

She was a petite humanoid bunny, it seemed. With a rather exotic mesh of off-white and red-orange colorations. Her eyes were big, brown, and resonated with all kinds of nice things.

What did I see in those eyes…?

I saw everything I wasn't. Music, fun, flowers, fortune, happiness…. compassion. Concern.

There was a whole uncharted galaxy of beauty in those cocoa eyes… Each individual star in that galaxy was a different quality. And I hadn't even known her for a minute.

Even one as broken as I was could see that this girl was something… rare, different… beautiful.

Inside and out.

The girl blinked a few times, then wiped her eyes free of a few stray tears. I… I wondered what she had been crying about?

"I…I can't…! Y-you really are alive!" She breathed, in a way that showed that she didn't truly believe her own declaration.

She looked at me, as if waiting for a response. I looked to my left, and all around for another individual besides her. I looked back up into her eyes, those captivating eyes.

…Wait… Was she talking… to me?

Why would such a perfectly unbroken being waste their words on something so broken?

I just looked at her, not saying anything. She couldn't be talking to me… She wouldn't waste the time. No… no one would.

She waited a moment, and then looked a bit flustered.

"Oh my, I'm sorry! I was a bit… uh, startled when you woke up… I thought I felt your pulse stop just a minute ago, but I must have been mistaken…" She said, blushing in the awkwardness.

Was she really speaking to me…?

She waited for me to respond. I didn't.

She looked embarrassed, and it was actually cute. "Well uh… oh, how rude of me… I haven't even introduced myself, have I…?" She grinned, and extended a gloved paw. "I'm Cream." She said.

Cream. A… suitable name, I guess. Not quite pretty enough for a girl like her, I thought, but reconsidering, I didn't know any word that would really be worthy of labeling someone so cute.

A moment passed, and I just stared at the angel white glove, then blinked, looking back up into her eyes. I never changed my blank expression.

Who was she talking to…?

The girl's hand retracted, like a tree in a desert, shriveling back to her side. She bit her lip, and her eyes relayed something I deducted to be… well, she looked like she felt out of place.

"Oh…. okay… so… What's your name…?" She asked, hesitantly.

She was looking right at me. She had to be talking to me… no one else was here.

I tried to think of an answer. I wasn't Josh. Josh was broken. Josh was gone. I was… what was I…?

Shyly, I made my boldest move since opening my eyes, and I freed one of my arms. Never looking away from her, I simply pointed at myself.

She cocked her head, then giggled. That giggle… It was like happiness made tangible. It made me feel… like I wasn't quite as broken as I knew I was.

"Of course you, silly! There's no one else here!" She said, with a happy face.

I almost felt like smiling. I tried…

Hehe. Too broken.

So she was talking to me. Really? There had to be a catch. Somebody not broken, talking to somebody broken? What good was I to her? Why would she…?

One question at a time, my broken mind pleads me.

Okay… so… what is my name…?

I almost open my mouth to say Josh, but I know that it's not true. Josh is dead. I'm not him. So who am I? I was broken. Broken things don't get to have names. They're not important enough…

But… I wanted so badly to give her an answer. She was so… I dunno. Wonderful to look at. To me. I mean...

I guess I was weird even before I was broken. Nevermind that.

But I felt like she deserved an answer. She was wasting her time asking me the question, so she at least deserved an answer. But what _was_ the answer?

I frowned. I simply couldn't bring myself to speak.

She frowned when she saw me frown. I felt bad that I had made her pretty face melt into such a waste of beauty. She… was she concerned about me?

No, that wasn't possible… was it?

"Sir…? What's wrong…? Your name…" She trailed.

I looked into those eyes, which shined brighter every time I looked at them. I felt like I had to say something. Anything. The truth… she deserved the truth.

And I finally brought words to my lips.

"…I don't have one."

She looked surprised when she heard my voice, like she wasn't even certain if I could speak at all. Then she looked confused, and then, concerned. She opened her muzzle to say something, but then shut it. She looked like she was thinking heavily. She frowned again. I almost felt like something was biting at my already broken heart when I saw her frown.

"You don't have a name…? That's so sad! That…" She trailed. She then looked almost valorous in a cute sort of way, as if she was willing to do something heroic. "No, that won't do at all." She said.

It was an adorable sight to see her put on a face that suggested that she had strength enough to move mountains. Heh. I bet she could. She wasn't broken… nowhere near it. Her spirit… it was like nothing I'd ever witnessed.

I wonder. Am I idolizing her 6 minutes into meeting her because I'm so broken, or because she's just _that _impressive? I wonder…

However, I only stared timidly at her from behind the huge comforter I had draped over me. I didn't bother to think of where that warm shelter might have come from, but I was glad it was there. Every time she looked at me I wanted to be invisible. She was so pretty… and I was broken. Having her eyes upon me felt so taboo, and yet...

I think I might have felt a tiny piece of my heart click back into place.

She grinned cutely at me, and I pulled the covers up to cover everything except my eyes. I wanted to be able to see her… She was… worth looking at.

I don't know. I'm too broken to know why I can't stop looking at her.

…Excuses…? What are you talking about?

"Hehe. You don't have to hide from me. I won't bite." She tittered. I pulled the comforter up a bit more, and she giggled like it was the funniest thing she'd ever seen.

Well, as long as she was getting _some_ amount of amusement out of me.

She waited a moment, then she put her hand to her chin, in an adorable pensive sort of look. "What to call you…? Hmm."

She really _was_ talking to me. Boy, all the sudden I felt… warmer. Maybe even hot. She's… Really talking to _me_… wow.

"Well… You've got the prettiest gray eyes I've ever seen… I could call you Stormy… no wait, that's dumb." She tittered.

Not only is she talking to me, she's trying to give me a name. She said I had pretty eyes… I felt hotter, like I was going to break out into a sweat as she talked to me. But I didn't take the comforter away… I didn't want her to see my freaky cat-thing face…

I realized she'd already seen it. I felt stupid, and pulled the comforter up a bit more.

"Hey, now stop that. Don't be such a shy boy… Come now, let me see your face." She said, with an expectant smile.

I didn't want to do what she said, but the way she asked made me feel like I had no choice. Hesitantly, over what seemed like minutes I pulled the comforter down just enough to where she could see the tip of my little pink cat-thing nose.

She examined me, and I felt my eyes looking down. My face got warmer. I felt her eyes on me, and I didn't feel worthy at all. No, I felt worthless, alone, and really hot.

It was…. an odd feeling, even for a broken cat-thing.

"Hehehe. If I didn't know better, I'd say your fur is even blacker than Shadow's." She said.

I didn't know what she was talking about, but she mentioned my black fur, and I winced. I didn't like my current form. Even though I was being judged by a humanoid bunny, I couldn't help but feel that a humanoid cat would be strange to her.

I worked up my broken courage, and trailed my eyes back up to look at her face. She was grinning, cute as can be. Looking at me.

She was looking at me. What was there to see? What did she see that was making her smile like that? It couldn't be anything about me… could it?

"Black fur. Hmmm. What's a pretty word for black…?" She asked herself.

I just watched her, blinking under the comforter, wishing I was invisible. Her eyes felt like sun beams, and everywhere she looked, I could feel it.

She was so fascinating, it was actually intimidating. I didn't say anything, couldn't mold my broken courage into any form of words. I just sat there, staring blankly… shyly at her.

"No suggestions? It's _your_ name, you should be the one to decide…" She said, moving her face closer to mine. I backed away, pulling the comforter over my whole head.

She giggled. It was an adorable sound that almost made me happy. Just hearing it gave me a reason to laugh with her. But I was scared. Something like her attention seemed too good to be true for a broken, lonely, unlucky cat-thing.

Eventually I could no longer resist at least being able to look at her, and I slowly let the comforter trail back down to where my eyes were visible. As soon as I did, I found here face directly in front of me, so close all I could see where her eyes.

"Peekaboo." She said.

I felt a meow-like peep escape my mouth as I quickly retreated to the safety behind the comforter once again.

She tittered again, and I pulled it back down to look at her. She was back where she was, just laughing at me. It wasn't a mocking type of laughter, but one that suggested she was really happy.

"That's so cute!" She giggled. I felt embarrassed in a happyish sort of way.

Happy…? She made me…

I blinked blankly, innocently from behind the blanket, watching her closely. I still paid attention to nothing in the room but her. Nothing else in the room was of any interest compared to her.

She finally sighed, in a way people do after finishing hysterical laughter, but hers was more of a coo. She looked at me, quiet for a moment.

"I have to give you a cute name now. I was going to call you Coal, or Midnight, or Obsidian, but those don't seem to fit you…" She said trailing. Her little lips curved. "I think I'm going to call you… Sable."

I sat there, my face blank, my broken heart beating faster than a broken heart should. She gave me a name. She gave a broken cat-something-or-other a name. Just for me. She put thought into it.

And I liked it.

And so, my life as Joshua officially ended. And my life as Sable began.

_**End Chapter**_


	6. Chapter 5

"Lucky 13" Chapter 5: "Rabbit's Foot" 

"So you're sure you're alright with me calling you Sable?" She asked me, for the fifth time. I didn't say anything, only nodded from behind the comforter.

"Hehe. Okay." She said. "I can't believe I just named someone. I feel almost like a mother."

She was now too restless to sit in one place to speak to me, and walked about the room, pacing this way and that, making gestures with her arms, putting all the emotion she could into every sentence she spoke to me.

"So anyway, Sable… How did you end up washed up on Emerald Coast…?" She asked me.

I didn't know what she was talking about. I couldn't remember. I was trying for her sake, actually trying. But I didn't remember anything. I remained silent, and gave her only an unknowing look.

She frowned, but pressed on.

"Ok… Well… do you remember anything at all?"

I remembered lots of things. But they weren't my memories. They were Josh's. I didn't have the right to claim his memories… and she probably wouldn't believe me. I had no memories as Sable. As Sable, I had only just been born.

I shook my head blankly.

She scratched her head, and looked at the floor in a pensive way. I felt bad that I was causing all that unnecessary thinking.

"Well… Alright. I guess if you don't even remember your own name, you don't remember anything else, either." She mused. She looked up, and gave me a cheery grin. Underneath the comforter, I smiled back. "That's okay. The best remedy for lost memories is to create new ones!"

I felt my broken heart beating a little faster. I wondered why she was willing to go to all this trouble for someone so broken. She…

Was she trying to fix me?

Just then I heard a voice that scared the living daylights out of me. It was a raspy, booming, powerful voice that came echoing from another room.

"Creeeeeeeeaaaaaaam! You up there?" It called.

I immediately pulled the comforter entirely over my head, shivering, like something was going to get me.

The bunny peeped, and I heard the sound of her door shutting.

Next thing I know somebody pulls the blanket away from me. My fur stood on end and I flinched considerably, expecting to see some kind of hideous monster, but seeing just the opposite. Her.

"Oh, shh, hey, don't be scared. That's just my stepdaddy… Um… But… you'd better hide." She said, giggling weakly.

"CREAM! I _heard_ yer door shut! What're ya doin' up there?" Came the booming, frightening voice. I shuddered, but she wrapped her arms around me, in a way to still me.

She wrapped her…

I felt hot, and stopped shaking. I looked timidly up into her eyes, and she put a finger up to her lips.

"It's okay… I won't let him find you. He may sound scary when he's yelling like that, but he's kind at heart. Oh… but… He's a little… Overprotective of me." She said, giving me a failing grin.

I didn't like the sound of that. I felt my face get hotter, as she didn't remove her arms any time soon. I didn't hate it… I know I didn't. I think I liked it, but I was too confused to really know for sure. But I know I wanted to be invisible.

I looked down shyly. As I was looking down, I realized something.

"…I'm naked." I said. Cream flinched a little, probably at my voice. That was only the second time she'd heard it.

We heard footsteps coming ever closer, stomping louder and louder, as if going up some stairs.

The girl sweatdropped cartoonishly.

"You're also a boy! Which is_ exactly _why you'd better go hide in my closet before daddy comes in here and gets the wrong idea…" She told me.

My face got hot, and I nodded, walking into her already ajar closet, and sliding the door shut. Being naked wasn't quite so embarrassing when you had a coat of fur, I found, but I still felt awfully exposed.

There was a banging on Cream's door, and it made my heart pound like a jackhammer and my fur stand on end. I think I might have even arched my back a little, no doubt some kind of feline side-affect of my new… of Sable's body.

I didn't like Cream's stepdad already. He was loud. He was very loud. Loud made me think he was also powerful. Powerful and mean. Powerful and mean enough to snap _me_ like a dry spaghetti noodle.

Her closet door was somewhat transparent, because the doors were barred with flat little planks of wood, so it was like looking through half-closed blinds. Through them, I quietly watched her.

I watched her flinch as her no doubt enormous stepdad pounded on her door. She flicked her light off, messed up her bed a little bit, and then… her fur?

I wondered what she was doing.

I watched as she unlocked the door, and opened it. She let her eyelids droop, and she yawned so realistically you'd think she had just gotten out of bed… Oh, I see.

"(Yawn) Daddy, why do you have to be so loud?" She said, drowsily.

Her father figure walked in, and for the first time I got a good look at him. The man looked almost exactly like I pictured him, which surprised me. I mean, there were records of intelligent life on Earth that weren't human, take Sonic the hedgehog, for instance… but it was rare, and I wasn't used to seeing anything like that outside of the news.

And now I was… sort of one of them, I thought.

But this guy wasn't small and cute and wonderful to be around like his stepdaughter was. No, he was just like I was afraid he'd be like: Big, scary, and mean looking. He was some kind of humanoid lizard, or alligator or something.

I now saw that he really was her STEPdad. No way this guy could be Cream's biological father… as far as appearance went, he was her exact opposite.

I could tell that he sensed something was out of place by the way he immediately entered the room, flicked the light on, and looked around. After a long moment, he looked back at Cream, who'd already climbed back into bed sleepily. I could tell she'd pulled the wool over his eyes before, and almost felt like laughing.

"Daddy, turn the light off…" She groaned groggily. Wow, she was good at this.

He folded his arms, and glared at the girl in a suspicious way.

"What're you doin' nappin' in the middle of the day, pumpkin?" He asked, more cautiously than worriedly. I sure hoped Cream wouldn't blow it… for my sake. A monster like that would probably chew me up and spit me out…

I gulped inaudibly as I examined those sharp teeth.

…LITERALLY.

Cream buried her head into her pillow. "Mffmffff fmm ff." She answered.

"Can't hear ya, Cream…" He called impatiently.

"Daddyyyy… just let me sleep… I'll tell you tomorrow." She whined. She was REALLY good at this.

Her gargantuan 'daddy' gave the room another once over, and for a long, horrifying moment, he was staring at the closet, directly at me. He finally looked away after what seemed like forever.

"Aw, awright. Sorry sweetie." He apologized, before flicking her light off and exiting the room, softly shutting the door behind him.

Cream waited a long moment, and for a second I really thought she was asleep. I remained in her closet, not wanting to leave it's safety myself.

Actually, I took a liking to her closet. In here I could look at her, but she couldn't see me. I was invisible, but I could still look at her.

After another long moment, I started entertaining myself by examining the contents of her closet. She had many assorted outfits strewn neatly about, all of which would look very good on her, I noted. Then there was the pile of shoes I was standing in the middle of, but I didn't really look at those.

The most interesting thing I found in her closet was an old photo album. Strangely enough, I found that I could see all of the pictures perfectly even though her light was off, her window shut, and I was shut up in her closet…

Strange. But I didn't give it another thought. I quietly flipped through the album, finding pictures of Cream when she was much, much younger. She was still adorable when she was little, but she was downright beautiful now. I found pictures of her with a little chao with a red bow tie. In almost every picture of her youthful self, she was with that little chao.

Heh. I never had one, but everyone I knew who did always told me that chao made great pets.

I wondered what happened to the poor little thing. I happened to know that chao are, in a sense, immortal. We studied them in biology class a lot, because they were so unique. For instance, the little critters live accelerated life spans, some maturing from a baby to an adult in just hours, others topping out at a year or two. But when a chao gets so old, I hear it turns back into an egg, waiting to hatch into another life. I guess they sort of reincarnated themselves or something like that.

But I noticed the presence of no chao in her room, or anywhere, so I assumed something had happened to it. Maybe I'd ask her later.

I flipped through the book and found pictures of none other than Sonic the Hedgehog. There were a lot of them, and none of them were autographed or anything. It donned on me that Cream might actually be close friends with the hero. I also found pictures of other familiar faces, ones I couldn't name, but had seen on the news countless times. They were all part of Sonic's crime fighting… team… or something like that, I assumed.

As I neared the end of the book, I found pictures of that crocodile man Cream called 'daddy' with a rabbit that, in some ways, looked remarkably like Cream. That _had_ to be her mother, I thought, counting the similarities.

Eventually I put the album back, and immediately after I'd done so, the closet door slid abruptly open, scaring me half to death.

When she saw me shivering in the corner, her face melted into a sad smile. "Awww… I'm sorry, Sable, I didn't mean to frighten you." She said, grinning almost mischievously. "It's safe to come out now. Daddy's detective friends called him over for a game of cards."

Detective. That guy was a detective…?

Remembering how suspicious he got when Cream was trying to hide me from him, that actually made a lot of sense. I really had to admire how crafty the bunny would have to be to fool Shercroc Holmes so easily….

I really hoped she could do it on a whim, or I'd be toast next time.

I didn't say anything, only nodded, subconsciously folding my tail over my pelvic region.

And Cream just watched me like it wasn't even that big of a deal. Well, I guess it wasn't… I mean, it wasn't like you could SEE anything on me… I think Sonic and a whole lot of those other characters were the same way, because they never wore clothes.

But I… I wasn't born like this, so I couldn't help but feel like… you know.

I looked up shyly from the corner of the closet, folding my knees up to my chest. Cream looked at me in a way that almost suggested fondness. I felt hot, hot and naked and exposed.

"Hee! You're such a shy boy, Sable. I've never met a boy who's not human that actually wears clothes… At least not all the time. When I found you you were wearing some… but they were all muddy and way too big, so I threw them away…" She said, frowning. I frowned too, also highly embarrassed that the girl had undressed me when she had found me washed up on a beach, something I still didn't even remember.

I looked up from behind my knees, shyly looking into her eyes, trying to ask questions without having to actually speak. She looked back at me and winked one eye shut, tilting her head. The other eye looked at the ceiling, as a sort of thoughtful look. She had many thoughtful looks, but none so cute as that one.

She opened her eyes with a grin, looking at me in a way that suggested she had had a lightbulb. She held up a finger.

"Hold on just a second!" She said, darting off into another room.

And I waited. I didn't want to leave the closet, even though she was, to my knowledge, the only one here now.

She was back in a flash, enthusiastically grinning as she tossed a pile of clothes into the closet and shut the door.

"Hehe! Go ahead and try them on! They're some of my daddy's clothes from when he was in college like a million years ago. He's a lot bigger now than he was then, so maybe these clothes will actually fit you." She called through the door.

I stared blankly down at the clothes for a moment, then picked them up. I examined them. One was a pair of jeans that I could probably fit three of me in, and the other was a big hoody sweatshirt that looked comfy and warm. Something was written on the front, but I didn't pay any attention to it.

A moment or two later, after I'd dressed, I slid the door open just a little, letting my face peer out at her. She turned around and smiled at me.

"Well?" She said, looking anticipant.

Sighing a little, I stepped out from the closet. The shirt fit me in only the vaguest sense, the bottom trailing down to my knees and the sleeves hanging over my paws. I looked like a little kid in a giant's shirt. The pants fit loosely, too, but there was a hole in the back for a tail, and I could use that to keep them from falling down. My footpaws were kinda big, so the pants didn't fall over them, but I still looked like a fool, I thought.

I looked down at the ground, feeling Cream's eyes on me heavily. I felt so humiliated, and wished I was invisible, or back in the closet, or behind her comforter.

I expected her to laugh at me. And she did.

Only a little titter, but not the kind of hysterical 'what a loser' laugh I was waiting for. No, this was her happy Cream laugh that made me feel like laughing with her.

I looked up at her, and smiled a little tiny bit. I guess it _was_ kind of funny.

"Hee! That's the first time I've ever seen you smile, Sable!" She said, fondly. I felt embarrassed, but still smiled as I scratched my head, looking down at the figure on the shirt…

I felt the laughter and the happiness fade as I gazed at the horrid reminder.

On the dark gray sweater were the plain, bold numbers, 1and 3.

13…

Cream giggled for another fleeting moment, before she detected my sudden fear. I looked up at her, then back at the number.

It took her a moment to figure out what was upsetting me, because you can probably tell by now, I didn't say a whole lot as Sable… I dunno, I guess I just didn't think it was necessary.

Maybe it was because I was broken, or shy, or timid or afraid.

"What is it…? Is there something wrong with it…?" She asked.

"…Number…" I breathed, feeling like that was all I could say.

She looked up at me, then at the number on the shirt. She smiled, and giggled.

"Oh, that's right! You're a black cat, aren't you? You don't believe in those old human superstitions, do you?" She said, trying to lighten the mood. I forced myself to smile, and I think I failed horribly. I shook my head.

"No… it's my… lucky… number…" I said, each word seconds apart.

I could see it in Cream's eyes. She knew I was upset, and she looked worried. Why did she worry about me so…?

Nevertheless, she forced a smile, too.

"Hehe. That's a pretty strange coincidence, isn't it…?" She pointed out, rocking on her feet cutely.

I nodded weakly, reminded that Lady Luck was watching.

I felt like she was a cattle rustler, and I had just been branded… The 13 was proof that I was her property. She owned me. I couldn't escape.

"Sable…? You're… shivering." The bunny said, pulling me from my thoughts. She had taken more than a few steps closer to me, and now she had her hands on arms, like she did before, trying to steady my body's sporadic spasming.

I looked down away from her eyes immediately, feeling my face get hot, as my body calmed itself at her very touch.

It was like magic. Like a broken part of me mending.

Another tiny little piece of my heart clicked back into place.

"Shh. It's alright… If you believe in luck then don't worry… Look." She said. I looked up at her, and saw that she was pointing at her foot. I looked down at it and didn't realize what she meant until a moment later.

It was a cute way to try and cheer me up, and not in vain, either. It made me feel a bit better, and I even smiled. Cream grinned and stepped away from me, seeing that she was making me nervous.

After a moment she looked at my attire again, and started tittering madly like before.

I actually found myself smiling in a way that exposed teeth this time, if only for a split second. I looked at some invisible particle on the ground with half-lidded eyes as she chortled at me.

I felt I had to say something.

"…No good?" I asked her, smiling only a little. She grinned cutely, looking me up and down twice.

"Well…You look cuter in it than I bet daddy does." She admitted, with another little laugh. This girl filled me with reasons to smile, it seemed.

I saw the humor in that—seeing as ANYBODY would look cuter than HER daddy in ANY attire. I was too shy to laugh though, and I still felt a little frightened at the 'coincidental' digits on my current outfit.

I frowned.

I could see her take a step closer out of the corner of my eye.

"Awww, I was just joking, Sable. I think you're really cute regardless of what you're wearing." She said, misconceiving the reason I'd frowned.

Sitting on her bed, I looked up at her bashfully, folding my knees up to my chest again.

Did she really think I was… cute? She didn't think I was a hideous cat-thing?

I looked away for a moment, but found myself gazing inevitably back into the brassy, earthen ovals of her eyes. I found myself caring for this girl more than anything else in the world. All the things Josh had cared for were gone, and now the things that Sable cared for were starting to show themselves.

I hadn't known her for more than an hour or two, and already this girl was precious to me. She showed compassion for my broken, fallen spirit, and she was trying to save me, trying to mend my broken soul. And she was making progress… I felt warm and safe, and… at peace, every time I looked at her.

She held me when I shook, and told me it would be alright. I believed her.

She was going out of her way to help me, even though I'm a total stranger to her, a broken stranger.

How, I wondered, could anybody possibly be _that_ beautiful inside?

I don't think I'd ever be able to figure that one out, broken or not. But that's alright. As long as nobody takes her away from me, I'd have something to live for. Something to hold onto.

She giggled, and looked away, her cheeks reddening a little. "Sable, you're staring at me…" She informed me.

I blinked once, then immediately looked away, my face getting hot again. A hot face meant you were blushing… fortunately I had night black fur, so there was almost no way I'd blush heavily enough for anyone to see…

"Hee… You're blushing…" She notified me. So I guess I was wrong about that… but… She was just…

Okay, so maybe I liked her a little _that_ way, too… but I didn't feel like I could help it. She was so…

I want to say 'perfect', but that would sound so stupid… So maybe there were no words for her. You've seen how speechless she renders me… it's like she's resilient to them or something. I couldn't bring myself to speak because I felt like I couldn't find any words worthy of her.

But of course as soon as she said that, I felt my face get that much hotter, and she giggled, seeming delighted at that.

She sat down next to me on the bed, and another moment dragged by. I couldn't help but wonder what would happen next. She did most of the talking, because I didn't really know what to say to her, or how to put it. What would she say to me next? I felt myself dying to hear her speak to me, no matter what we were talking about, I just wanted to hear her tell me something about herself, or just speak.

Her voice made me feel peaceful and comforted.

Finally the words came.

"Do you remember how old you are…?" She asked.

"17." I replied, without thinking. It was almost reflex that time, and I felt like an idiot.

How old _was_ Sable really? Did he or any humanoid animals age the same way humans did? These were questions I didn't know the answer to. And it wasn't because my mind was too broken, but because they were so hard.

But Cream giggled, poking my foot with hers lightly.

"I'm a year older than you." She sang almost mockingly, but a cute sort of mocking.

Looking at her, I simply did not see how that was possible. I mean, she looked like a teenager, I suppose, but I had no way of telling how old she was…. but she was extremely petite, perhaps 2 or 3 inches shorter than me, and many more inches thinner. She had me guessing 15, tops… but here she tells me she's 18?

What's very odd is, strangely, I felt slightly more attracted to her than before. Older or not, we were close in age. We had something in common.

I blinked, looking at her blankly. She smirked more devilishly than she had before.

"What, you don't believe me? I know I've got a baby-face, but you know, you do, too." She told me, poking my footpaw again with her socked toes.

I blinked again, wondering if what she said was true. When I saw what Sable had looked like before, I remembered only a watery, vague silhouette of an image. I hadn't seen my own face close enough to examine it for such details.

I looked at her, waiting for her to say something else.

"I thought you were maybe 15 or 16 a minute ago." She admitted, looking me in the eye. When I felt her eyes penetrate mine like that, my mildly broken, slowly mending heart would jump into my throat, and do the fandango. I looked away, my face warming again. She let out a little, muffled laugh. She was full of laughter.

Another moment passed.

"Sable… It's no fun talking to myself." She suddenly said. I looked up at her, eyes relaying my own question. She smiled almost sadly. "I mean I know you're listening and all that, but…" She trailed.

She bent forward, putting her face close to mine. I backed away, feeling my body temperature rise enough I'd swear I was sweating.

"You should talk more." She told me.

For a moment, I just stared blankly, somewhat nervously at her. She smiled innocently.

"It's okay. You can trust me, Sabie. You can say anything to me, I'll listen." She told me. She raised her huge, floppy ears effortlessly into the air. "I'm a good listener."

I thought about it for a moment, and thought, and thought… what could I say that wouldn't sound stupid…?

I opened my mouth after a long minute, but I choked, and closed it. Cream frowned and it stung me like something beyond physical.

Emotional pain always hurt me more than anything of the physical world.

Another moment dragged by. I looked at her, ears drooping sadly because she couldn't get me to talk to her. I felt bad… like beyond broken bad. Beyond worthless… Beyond cold, wet, and miserable.

And I couldn't take it. It didn't matter what I said, I just had to tell her something… anything. I couldn't tolerate another second of seeing her sulk because I was a cat that had my own tongue.

So I said the first thing that came to my mind, without even thinking.

"…You're very pretty."

_**End Chapter**_


	7. Chapter 6

"Lucky 13" Chapter 6: "It's a Turtle" 

I simply couldn't believe what I'd just told her. Of all the words for me to conjure up as a last resort, I stoop to lowly flirting.

Her pretty brown eyes shrank a little, surprised, and I turned away, squinting my eyes shut, awaiting the pain such a stupid remark would surely invoke.

Surely she'd hate me now. She was precious to me because for some reason, she didn't before. But now I'd gone and blew it before I even knew what it was like to have a broken heart fixed.

I shivered a little. I got frightened so easily ever since I broke, sprouted a tail, and lost everything I once took for granted. And I could almost hear the goddess of misfortune's mocking laughter as I proved her point in calling me a scaredy-cat time and time again. I shuddered and shook like a leaf on a tree for what seemed like forever before I finally felt it…

The harsh pain of being brutally rejected, the resounding pain of a girl you really like hitting you with a vicious…

…Embrace…?

Now wait just a minute.

This wasn't pain… No, it wasn't pain at all. This was nothing like pain. What was she doing? Why hadn't she slapped me, or spit on me, or choked me to death with my own tail…?

I hesitantly opened my smoky gray eyes to see her with her arms around me, smiling up at me fondly. She… she actually looked genuinely happy.

What just happened? All of the sudden she was praising me for saying something forward, dumb, and utterly….

"That's so sweet of you to say!" She gushed, embracing me with more power than I would have guessed those petite little arms had in them.

Wait a second, what did I do again…? I forgot… Why is she hugging me…? I… I… Ayeyeye.

Did you say something…? Did _I_ say something…? What's going on?

Who is me?

(gulps) Brown eyes…

And just like that, the blast of heat that came flowing into me like some kind of oddly pleasurable electric shock cooled, and she released me, smiling at me like I was a birthday present with her name on it. I finally managed to rip my eyes from hers with much effort, and I cast my wayward, hot-faced glance upon her carpeted floor.

"Heehee." She chirped, "I can't wait to introduce you to some of my friends, Sable."

That made me nervous. If her friends were anything like her family, I'd be put on the spot before I could blink. It probably showed in my features that the aspect of meeting anyone in my current form made me more than a little nervous, because she began to… sort of pet me. Just a little. For a second. Maybe…

Uh… sort of.

"Shh. Don't get upset, I didn't mean right now. It's too soon. I have to break you in, a little, first." She said, through a wry wink. I don't know if I liked the sound of that, either.

I gave her a questioning look, and blinked once or twice, eyes probably more or less blank and clueless. She smiled. She was full of smiles and giggles and hugs and pets and all of that.

"You still don't talk much, and you're still the shyest boy I've ever met. I have to bring you out of your shell a little first, you turtle." She said, shoving me playfully.

I swayed under the push a little, and then reverted back to sitting up somewhat straight, maybe slouching just a little. I looked up innocently into her eyes. She looked at me for a moment, then gave me a little smile.

"…Then again… to be honest, your shyness is kinda what makes you so cute." She told me. I couldn't look at her after she told me something so flattering, so I looked at the most fascinating thing in the room next to her—the invisible particle of dust on the floor. I felt the heat again, my face probably pinkening through it's raven hue.

Another long moment of me not saying anything back because my words weren't good enough for her came and passed. Another moment filled with her, but not me, because I wasn't contributing to the conversation. Another moment I wished with much of my broken being that I could muster something else to say, something else that would be rewarded with a hug and a fond look.

Maybe…

"You know…" I started. She looked surprised that I was speaking. I waited a moment. "You know Sonic…?" I breathed.

She smiled instantaneously, nodding with a childlike vigor.

"Yes! I've known him for a long, long time! How did you…?" She started. I merely pointed to her closet.

"A… photo album." I said, clipping my sentence, for lack of Josh's old silver tongue. She smiled at what seemed to be the very sound of my voice. I liked seeing her smile, especially when it was because of something _I_ did.

"Oh. That old thing? Hehe. I was so little back then… That was forever ago… Back when we were all together… I kind of miss those days." She said, balling herself up in a similar way that I was. She seemed to be smiling in a saddish way that suggested… lament.

She looked at me, and I frowned a little. She scooted a little closer, in a way that only I would notice, since I was always watching her as closely as I could. She looked at the ground.

"Now everyone's all grown up, and doing their own thing. Everyone's drifting apart, slowly but surely… I wish…" She started. She looked at me in a fondish, and yet saddish sort of way. "…I wish people could just stay together forever. But I guess that's too much to ask for, huh…?"

I didn't nod or shake my head or say anything, because I really didn't know how I felt on that subject. I was thinking about her, of course. I wondered if it really was too much to ask that she and I be together just like this for as long as forever.

I thought about it, and came to the conclusion that I was dreaming if I thought she'd be able to hide me for that amount of time. We'd drift apart too, eventually…

That thought made me… really sad. I didn't want to be away from her. I…

I needed her.

"The only friends that live close-by now are Tails and Amy. And Sonic comes by whenever there's trouble, but that's about it…" She said.

Upon hearing the name 'Amy', my ears perked up, but they trailed back down. I knew it couldn't have been my… Josh's Amy. No, Amy was a common name, and it was a big world. I couldn't have been that lucky.

I took a moment to wonder what Amy and Star, my… Josh's two best friends would think of me if they saw me like this. Would they think I was cute, like Cream did? Or would they shriek and kick me because I'm a hideous cat-thing?

With Josh, I realized, died my hopes of ever being with a woman intimately ever again. Sable wasn't as much of a romancer as Josh was, nowhere near it. I was about as romantic as a hairy armpit now.

No more sex for me. Not that lucky.

But…

I let my eyes trail to look at Cream for a split second, but then I looked away, face getting hotter and a certain other region boiling as well. I couldn't believe what I'd just thought. I mean, what were my chances at something like THAT, even if she DID think I was cute?

One in infinity, I thought. It didn't even _matter_ if the probability was above fifty percent, I'd end up with nothing because of my luck issue… And besides… I was broken. I couldn't satisfy such a wonderful girl like Cream in the way she deserved to be.

I was a mess.

And she was all but flawless in my eyes.

"Sable…" she said, voice lower, more velvety and gentle than before. "What are you good at?"

Well that was a random question…

I realized the subject kept changing because I was being stupid and quiet and broken and not leading any of the topics into a conversation. It was my _own_ fault she asked me a question I really, really didn't know how I was going to answer.

She asked me what I was good at. What was I supposed to tell her? I knew what Josh was good at. Josh was good at almost everything. Josh was a god amongst men to me now that I was no longer him. Josh was 50 feet tall and bulletproof now that he was being compared to my pathetic broken self. Josh…

…Enough about him. That's not who I am anymore. What is Sable good at?

Sable was a broken fraidy cat. Sable was good at hiding behind the covers, retreating into his shell whenever something startled him, and causing himself misfortune. The rest was all broken. The heart was mending, but still broken. The spirit was scared to be fixed, and the will was all but irrepairable.

"…Nothing." I replied, sadly. And she… Cream looked almost insulted, and for a second I thought I'd offended her somehow. I wanted to be invisible.

"Hey, don't you ever say that about yourself, you hear? Everybody is good at something…" She said, scolding me for the first time. I flinched at every word just because of the way she was saying them. I honestly didn't think Cream was even _capable_ of getting angry or anything like that up until now…

So now I _really_ had to do something. I had to tell her something I was good at, but I didn't even know if I was still good at anything. Okay… so…

What were my best qualities as Josh? I had a lot of them… they couldn't _all_ be broken, could they?

So I listed them in my head, one by one, crossing out the ones I probably couldn't handle anymore. First thing that came to mind was writing. Totally broken. I was a man of words as Josh, but… when I broke, the words just wouldn't come anymore.

Next thing I thought of was… Well, that. Well, Josh always _liked_ to think he was good at that. I mean, everyone he did it with seemed more or less satisfied… wait a second, why was I thinking about telling Cream I was good at something like that? No, no, I… relied on my spirit for that anyway. My spirit was broken, and broken again.

Josh was good at other, simpler things, like knowing just the right thing to say. Josh was perceptive, clever, and crafty in his own right…

But I lost the foundations for all of those things when I broke. They were all gone.

Come on… what skills did Josh have that couldn't be broken by something like a bad turn of luck…?

I thought about it for a long, long moment, and the way Cream was frowning, she looked as if she didn't expect an answer any time soon. Every time she frowned because of something I said, or rather something I didn't say, it felt like some kind of physical blow inside of me.

I finally thought of something that I could tell her. I had paws now… but… well, maybe I was still good at that. I hoped I was.

"I can draw… a little." I muttered almost inaudibly. Of course, if anyone could hear it, Cream could, assuming those ears of hers weren't just to make her look even cuter than she already was. The way her face just… lit up like a floodlight straight out of heaven then… it made me feel like, for a split second, I wasn't broken anymore. No, it made me feel like being broken wasn't so bad after all. Not if I can make her smile like that.

But that moment of happiness was short-lived indeed, because the next thing she did was hop up and dart over to her nightstand, opening a drawer filled with all kinds of color pencils and pens and crayons and paper.

She brought all of the stuff over to her bed, and sort of just let it dump out of her arms, piling up in a most unfashionable sort of way. She looked at me with huge, wide, very brown eyes. Some part of that girl was still just a child, I realized, just by looking at how excitable she was.

"Show me." She demanded, knowing I couldn't turn her down.

I glanced at the stuff she'd handed me. Not a single mechanical pencil. I didn't do colors, and I couldn't draw anything unless I had a mechanical. And I especially couldn't do it while somebody was watching me.

Please, somebody just shoot me now. I wanted to be invisible, I wanted to be in the closet or under the comforter or in my turtle shell.

Now, I honestly didn't think having paws with a few less fingers than any human had would make much of a difference, seeing as drawing wasn't as much about technique as it was knowing what you were doing. And I remembered how to make lines and I could put a picture that was forming in my head down on paper easily enough… but…

While she was watching me…? Waiting for the greatest picture ever to be produced by poor, broken lil' old me?

Play dead, Sable, just roll over and play dead. Maybe she'll look away long enough for you to hide.

But, looking into those eyes, I realized that not in a million years, no matter what she was asking me to do, could I ever even _think_ about saying no to a face like that. It just wasn't in me, and I don't think it would've even been in Josh, God rest his now broken soul.

So, feeling like an awkward idiot, I slowly, hesitantly, nervously used my preferred left ha… paw to spread the materials out, so that I could locate something I was at least vaguely familiar with using.

I found a pencil that had a very good eraser, and a sharp point, but I still didn't want to use it. It wasn't mechanical. Those things, sharp or not… the lines were too thick. They didn't have grips. They needed constant sharpening. I hated those things.

Holding the thing, I awkwardly adjusted it to where it wouldn't slip out of my paw, finding that one less finger than normal made it a bit harder with these things. But…

What was cool was it didn't slip. I finally realized something I really should have realized before—My paws had these… pad thingies on them. They served as grips, better grips than anything I'd ever had on even the best mechanicals. It really helped.

Maybe being a hideous cat-thing wasn't so bad after all?

She watched me almost feverishly, much the same way I watched her, but not quite so inconspicuous. No, I had a hard time looking at her when she was looking back, but she just kept on looking, whether I was meeting the gaze or not. I let out a wavery, nervous sigh as I grabbed the entire pile of paper. The bed wouldn't serve as a very good surface to draw on, but the stack of paper was so thick that I could draw on it without messing up _too_ horribly bad.

Putting the tip of the pencil to the paper, making a tiny dot, I finally realized that all that mental preparation was for nothing, seeing as I had no earthly idea what to draw for her.

I just looked up at her in a pleading sort of big-eyed way, wondering if I could find what she expected by looking at her face. I couldn't. Josh could have, I bet, but Sable couldn't.

But she smiled at me in a way that suggested genuine admiration, even though there wasn't really anything in the room worth admiring except her…

Except her…

That's it. I'd draw _her_. I wondered… Could I handle drawing something as pretty as she was? If I made her look ugly because of a lack of confidence or because I was rusty or because I didn't have a mechanical pencil, would she get mad at me?

No, I told myself.

Cream wouldn't get mad about something like that. No, she'd laugh if I messed it up. She was too good to get mad for any reason except protecting her friends, or me…

Was she my friend? Was I hers?

I would have liked to think so. Sable didn't have any friends. Sable needed a good friend more than he needed to be fixed. He needed her.

So I looked up at Cream's face, that still excited face, and tried to figure out where to start. It didn't take long. My favorite thing about her were her eyes. They were the only part of her I simply couldn't stop looking at. I'd draw those.

I used the pencil, hindered by my paw's consistent shaking and the fact that the huge sleeves of the sweater kept falling down over it. I tried to pretend she wasn't watching me. I was afraid I'd mess up, but I reminded myself that the pencil has an eraser. I focused with all my broken might, making an ovular shape on the paper, and another. I erased the bottom parts of the ovals, but on purpose, drawing a curved line below them. I don't know why I decided to draw her looking down, but that was what I wanted to do.

Wait… I _did_ know why.

It was because I liked looking at Cream even more when she… wasn't looking back. That was when I felt safe from her judgement. Her judgment could be trusted, I knew that, but for some reason I always expected the worst, even from somebody so gold-hearted as her.

I looked up at her, and then back to the paper, trailing the curvy line down to connect the ends as smoothly as I could, making a curvy blob shape. I didn't fill it in… that part of her face was blanker than the whites of her eyes.

She looked down at my paper confusedly, obviously trying to figure out what it was I was drawing. And I got nervous. Nervous because she was watching every line. I made an error because my paw was shaking, and I erased it, feeling stupid. I tried again, and made the exact same error, for the same reason. I erased it, and did the _same_ thing a third time.

I was beginning to get exceedingly upset because I was messing up, making a big, dumb-looking smudge. My paw shook and shook, because it was just so hard at the thought of her eyes.

At the very top of Sable's long, _long_ list of fears was stage fright, I discovered.

And just when I thought it would shake so violently it might fall off, I felt a warmth wrap itself around it. I gasped a little, frightened at the sudden touch, seeing her snowy glove wrapped around my jittering sooty paw. And the shaking stopped, as the warmth from that simple little touch trailed slowly up my arm, down my spine, coursing through my veins like blood cells made radioactive.

She went and did it again, she had to go and glue another little piece of my broken heart together, another little piece that now belonged to her. Why did she waste her time on me…?

I gulped a little, feeling like my face was a match, and her touch had ignited it. I felt like that every time she touched me, and she touched me every time I shivered.

I chanced looking up into the beauty that, a moment ago, I was trying to draw. Almost every time I looked up into those eyes, they were always just a little closer to me than I expected. She blinked precisely 3 times before she smiled. Her eyes were the easiest part of her to read, and they told me that she'd just figured something out.

"You use mechanical pencils, don't you?" She said.

I looked at her blankly, vaguely astonished that she'd deducted something like that. I didn't remember saying anything… I just told her that I could draw. And I'd yet to prove that I was even in the foggiest sense 'good' at it. Her hand was still wrapped gently, so… impossibly gentle around mine, and the pencil.

And I can easily admit that there was no warmth like Cream's warmth. None.

And I don't mean that in a sense to say that her touch was hotter than something like boiling water or the sun, but as a way to say that it was… the perfect temperature.

I don't say perfect lightly, either. It was the kind of warmth that you'd do _anything_ to achieve, even if it was just for a second. The kind of warmth that makes a person feel like they belong… surrounded by it.

And yes, I mean that in a way to suggest that I wanted desperately, every time I felt it, to simply press my body against hers, to blanket myself with that same fantastic sensation.

It was fear that stopped me from acting on these feelings. I was scared of the touch, because it was _her_ touch. I was only allowed to have as much as she willingly gave me, that and no more. I held this girl in higher respects than I held queens, presidents, or even gods, because she was all that separated me from absolute and complete misery.

She was just that…

…She was that important to me. I wish I could make it sound rational, that I'd have these feelings so shortly after meeting her, but I simply can't.

Except to say… At that moment, she was everything. No, she's _still_ everything.

I didn't know what everything _was_ until I met her.

She was my only friend. I needed her. And I didn't want her to judge me. I was afraid of her judgment, because it was so powerful. Her judgement could have killed me again and again. It could have broken certain parts of me worse than ever. Particularly… my heart.

I didn't know what she wanted, and even if I did, I wasn't sure about it. Sable's very nature was unsure, about almost everything. I wasn't sure, and the fact that I could be wrong about things scared me out of making those decisions. I wasn't sure about anything. Not her, not this feeling, but most of all, I wasn't sure of _myself_.

After relishing her hand's warmth for as much time as I could steal without getting caught, I looked up into her eyes, and she looked into mine. Sable communicated mainly through his eyes.

I nodded to her, but I didn't ask her how she'd figured it out, even though I wanted to know. She told me anyway.

"Hee… I doodle a little too… I can tell because of the way you draw with the tip straight down instead of slanted to the side." She said.

Now that was something that interested me. Anything I could learn about her interested me, because, like I said, she was everything. She was all I had, and I was beginning to think she was all I needed. If I could trust anyone, it would be her. Down to the core I could see how trustworthy she was. It was written plainly in her rich, earthy eyes.

So she could draw. I wondered how good she was… I wondered which hand she drew with, what kind of things she drew, everything. I wanted to know everything about it.

I looked up into her eyes with the fascination of a kid about to hear an exciting story. And she looked happy that I was interested, but that was no surprise. She was a happy girl. And… she made me feel that way too. She made me feel things I'd never thought possible for broken things to feel.

"Hee hee. I don't have any mechanical, sorry… I bear down too hard, rip the paper with those. But I can show you how a normal pencil can be better." She offered, taking my paw in her left again.

She tossed the piece of paper I'd messed up aside, and ever so gently altered her paw's position over mine, molding my left hand into an entirely different position, but a position that sort of… felt like something clicking into place. Then holding that pencil actually felt right. She moved her arm a little, and, feeling much less nervous, much warmer and safer than before, I followed, making a curved, perfect, diagonal line.

"There you go! Just like that, lefty." She teased. I glanced at the single line, then looked up at her.

"What is it…?" I asked. She always sort of perked up at the sound of my voice, like she didn't expect it, but welcomed it nonetheless. She smiled gently, and carefully took the paper and pencil from me.

And she… she was good. She was _really_ good. I watched as she quickly and effortlessly made perfect, smooth, evenly proportioned lines on the paper with her right hand. Then she _switched_ hands, and started again, just as perfectly, just as neatly, and within about 5 minutes I saw a picture of a… wait, was that me?

She hadn't bothered to shade it, but it… That picture was absolutely fantastic. It amazed me how good she was. And to be able to do something like that so quickly, she…

She didn't even look like she was trying. I now realized she was 100 to a million times better than me, or Josh, or both of us put together.

"It's a turtle." She answered, grinning cutely. Not only did she give me a name, but now I had a nickname as well. I almost felt like laughing, but I just smiled silently.

What I had just seen made me want to stick my head out of my shell for a minute, because I was just so fascinated, so enthralled that she could do something like that. I felt like, for once, I could actually speak openly to her about something.

"…That's amazing." I told her, looking at the picture fondly, admiring the quality. I wondered if that was really what I looked like… even for a cat-thing, it wasn't really so bad. She even said I was cute.

I looked at her when she didn't respond, and she was pink with modesty, even though she had enough skill to justly brag to the world that her artwork was God's gift to Earth, without anyone disagreeing. Who would?

"You really think so, Sable?" She asked me through a smile. I only looked at her for a minute, studying her. I nodded.

"You…" I started. There I go again, starting a sentence before I knew how to finish it. I breathed out, trying to calm my shy nerves. "You use both hands…?" I asked.

She smiled at me, and nodded like it wasn't worth complimenting. "Yup. I've been drawing since I was really little… So… well, I sort of taught myself to use both of them. It's easy if you practice a lot." She told me. I watched her as she glanced pensively at the drawing I held.

"Look," She said, holding her hands out to the picture she'd created. I handed it to her, and she took the pencil in her right hand, making sure to adjust it so I could see. She traced over the ear on the left-most side of the drawing, "Right hand draws smoother lines on the left side…" She put the pencil in the other hand, and traced over my other ear, "And left makes better curves on the right." She explained.

It made sense to me, because I, despite how ridiculously she outranked me in it, drew things too, and knew that my left-handedness drew much better curves when they were on the right half of the paper.

"…I can't use my right at all." I said, just randomly. She looked up at me, and set the stuff down. She took both of my paws in her hands, and smiled like it was no big deal.

She was a very, very physical person. She was the kind that greets total strangers with a hug rather than a bow or a handshake. I'm not complaining, either, but… she just got me so flustered when she up and did something I deemed so… outgoing.

…But then again, _everything_ was outgoing to the shyest boy Cream had ever met, huh?

"Want me to teach you?" she offered. Why, I ask, why does she do these things for me? I simply don't understand how she can be so pure as to be _that_ nice to me.

I couldn't possibly say no when she was so happily awaiting for her offer to be accepted, so I just stared into those eyes, for a single, fleeting moment of pure adoration, before I nodded to her. She looked just as happy as I knew she would, that child-like energy, that liveliness, that unbelievable spirit, all of it shining through as well.

I realized that Cream had to be the luckiest thing that had ever happened to me, and then I started to think… maybe she _was_ lucky. Maybe even lucky enough to counter-act _my_ misfortune.

With that, my broken hope was partially mended, and I felt glad at the thought that maybe Lady Luck didn't have as tight of a hold on my fate as she thought she did.

-----+

The rest of the day went by faster than I possibly could have imagined, and I eventually found myself in the closet again, this time hiding from Cream's mother, Vanilla.

Vanilla was almost as sweet and caring as her daughter, and I almost felt like thanking her for bringing her up the way she did, because it was exceedingly obvious that the seasoned woman had a huge influence on the girl.

The only difference I could see in the two's actual personalities was that Vanilla was just a tad more courteous and formal, and I imagined that, though Cream still had quite impeccable manners, the formality was probably something she grew out of when she matured into a teenager.

(deep breath) What else…?

Oh yeah… even though Cream was using the utmost caution when it came to keeping me hidden, we almost got busted when she tried to get a double helping of lunch so that she could bring me some of it.

I mean… even I would have gotten suspicious if she'd done something like that… I mean, look at her. She's about as trim as they come.

I also learned that she was a vegetarian. Well, I guess that came with the rabbit thing… but anyway, she brought me some kind of casserole later on, even though I told her not to go to so much trouble. I wasn't really hungry at all, even though I couldn't remember the last time I'd eaten.

I found out that, in a contest of determination, I didn't stand a chance against her. And, for the second time since I'd met her, Cream looked at me in a way that suggested… well, that I did _not_ want to find out what she'd do to me if I didn't eat that food, so I nipped at it until it was mostly gone.

It tasted good for something I had to force down. I remember she'd told me that she was the one who'd cooked it. I subconsciously added cooking to Cream's list of a million talents.

But after the food ordeal, the girl was even _more_ careful not to do anything that might give away my presence, these including the fact that she left me all alone for what felt like hours so she could go spend what she called 'the average amount' of time with her mother. I didn't want her to go, but she told me Vanilla would get suspicious if she didn't.

I still didn't want her to leave me, but I understood. If there was anything I knew, it was that mothers have a way of… surprising you with how easily they can figure out what your secrets are. I knew it from experience… Well, from Josh's experience.

And now that I was all alone in a dark, lonely closet with nothing but my broken mind to keep me company, it was only a matter of time before I'd find something to be miserable about. Vanilla was nothing at all like my… erh, Josh's mom, but she still reminded me intensely of her.

I tried not to think about mom, but…

Trying not to think about my old lady… made me think about her of course. My… Josh's mom always knew everything. Every time I had a question, I'd ask her. She always knew. I wish I could ask her what she'd do now, were she in my situation. I felt guilty about some of the things I'd said when I was lucky, when I was still Josh.

I always shunned mom's advice as meaningless lectures, and tried to talk my way around them, but now that I knew I'd probably never see her again… I frowned.

Now I wished more than ever that I could get mom's advice just one more time.

I never realized how much luck I really had until I had to live without it…

Mom…

Apart from saying some of the wisest, most intellectual things since Confucius, she also said some really old fashioned, cliché things.

I imagined mom's voice with my broken imagination: _"You don't know what you've got til' it's gone."_ She said.

Cliché. Yeah, really cliché. But I found now that the most cliché of things… those are usually the things that hold the most truth. I think mom was trying to show me… trying to make Josh see that. Now… here I was, begging for something that before I'd begged only to be _rid_ of.

The tragic irony was too much weight for a broken heart to bare, and… for the first time since I woke up next to Cream, I…

…I cried. There was no getting away from how much I missed my friends and family. The thought of never seeing them again made me feel like I'd puke my broken heart out.

…I tried not to make any noise, and I didn't. Well, maybe just a little noise. Barely audible.

I wondered what everyone would think happened to Joshua Duncan once he didn't come back from his trip to the woods. Would they form a search party? Would they put my picture on the side of a milk carton? Make a memorial?

Would they… even notice?

A part of my heart that Cream had restored wiggled, and chipped off.

I didn't notice when the closet door slid open, as my face was buried in… what's his name… Vector's old sweater. The only noise that escaped was my wavery, irregular breathing.

…Okay, so maybe I was sobbing just a little.

Still, I had underestimated Cream's remarkable sense of hearing.

"Oh gooodness, Sable, are you alright?" Came her voice, startling me.

I was shaking. I was shaking again because I was afraid to let her see me cry. She'd see me cry, and she'd ask me why I was crying. What was I supposed to tell her? I would tell her the truth. But who in their right mind would believe such a thing? I couldn't tell her that I missed my previous life as a human; she'd think I was nuts!

I felt her as she wrapped her arms around me, stilling me. She did it every time I shivered, or shook, or moved irregularly. She succeeded every time because her touch—the feel of her warmth was…

It was worth stopping for.

I didn't look at her. I had tears in my eyes. I didn't want her to see me like this. But she did something against which there was no defense, especially none that broken old Sable could muster…

She gently placed her gloved paw on my chin, and my body followed her touch inevitably, until I was looking right at her, teary-eyed.

"…What's wrong…?" She asked me. I _knew_ she'd ask me that, I _knew_ it. I was afraid of it, so I just knew it would happen. It almost always did.

Damn my rotten luck.

So now I needed something to tell her that would bring logical reason to why Sable, a broken nobody and stranger with no past would be crying to himself in her closet, while she was _supposedly_ downstairs watching a movie with her mother.

I had to make up something fast, because if I didn't act soon, I'd see those truth-demanding eyes, and I'd tell it to her. The truth, the ridiculous truth.

Well, now or never, I told myself, opening my big, stupid, broken mouth….

Sable really had a thing for saying the dumbest thing possible at the most inopportune moments, I found.

"I… missed… you." I sniffled, feeling like an idiot.

End Chapter 

Extremely small A/N: Is this not the FLUFFIEST story I've ever written? You gotta love it.

TELL ME YOU LOVE IT!


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